i 

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s.is./s- 


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^e\jeii  lii??Ung  Bible  Boofes 


A  SUPPLEMENT  TO 
WHO  WROTE  THE  BIBLE^'^^"-' 


^rr^'vif  miici 


MAH  1  H  191 


BY 


/^T. 


fn-r^^ 


u 


WASHINGTON   GLADDEN 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN   AND  COMPANY 

1897 


COPYRIGHT    1897    BY   WASHINGTON    GLADDEN 
ALL    RIGHTS    RESERVED 


TO 

THE  PEOPLE  OF  MY  CARE 

WHOSE   GENEROUS   CAJTDOR  AND  UNFAILING   KINDNESS 

HAVE  ALWAYS  SUPPORTED  MY  BEST  ENDEAVORS 

TO   SPEAK   THE   TRUTH 

THIS  BOOK 

IS   GRATEFULLY   DEDICATED 


PREFACE 

In  the  little  book  entitled  "  Who  Wrote 
the  Bible  ?  "  it  was  necessary  to  treat  in  an 
extremely  cursory  manner  the  several  bibli- 
cal writings.  In  the  course  of  ten  short 
chapters  the  sixty-six  books  of  the  Bible  all 
passed  under  review ;  but  a  few  words  re- 
spectmg'  its  origin  and  character  could  be 
given  to  each.  There  appeared  to  be  good 
reasons  for  taking  a  few  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment books  and  subjecting  them  to  a  more 
careful  examination.  The  reader  of  this 
volume  will  discover  that  this  was  done  in  a 
series  of  popular  lectures.  They  were  given 
on  Sunday  evenings  to  a  thoughtful  con- 
gregation. They  are  printed  substantially 
as  they  were  spoken ;  I  have  not  greatly 
chastened  the  familiar  and  direct  manner 
of  speech. 

On  each  of  these  books  many  volumes 
have  been  written ;  no  one  will  expect  to 
find  in  these  brief  discourses  an  adequate 
exposition  of  any  of  them.  I  have  only 
wished  to  bring  to  the  knowledge  of  those 
who  heard  them  and  of  those  who  shall  read 


IV  PREFACE 

them  a  few  of  the  more  important  results  of 
recent  biblical  study.  In  the  Introductory 
Essay  I  have  considered  somewhat  carefully 
the  duty  of  Christian  pastors  with  respect  to 
their  use  of  the  Book  from  which  they  draw 
the  substance  of  their  teaching. 

The  kindness  with  which  the  other  little 
book  has  been  received  by  Christians  of  all 
creeds,  on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  ought  to  be 
here  acknowledged.  To  a  far  greater  extent 
than  I  could  have  expected,  it  has  been  em- 
ployed as  a  text  book  in  Bible  classes,  and 
in  assemblies  of  Sunday-school  teachers; 
from  several  sources  I  have  received  skill- 
fully arranged  analyses  of  the  several  chap- 
ters, with  supplementary  and  illustrative 
suggestions,  which  must  have  added  greatly 
to  the  value  of  the  book  in  the  hands  of 
students.  To  many  kind  letters  which  have 
come  to  me  from  readers  of  the  book  I  have 
been  unable  to  reply ;  let  this  be  the  testi- 
mony of  my  gratitude  that  so  many  have 
found  in  it  that  which  satisfies  their  reason 
and  confirms  their  faith  in  the  truth  which 
the  Bible  reveals. 

WASHINGTON   GLADDEN. 

First  Congregational  Church, 
Columbus,  Ohio,  October  11,  1897 


CONTENTS 

Page 

I.   Introductory 1 

II.   Judges 43 

III.  Esther 68 

IV.  Job 97 

V.     ECCLESIASTES 128 

VI.   The  Song  of  Songs        .        .        .        .  154 

VII.   Daniel 177 

VIII.  Jonah 246 


SEVEN  PUZZLING  BIBLE  BOOKS 


INTRODUCTORY 

The  chapters  which  follow  are  devoted  to 
the  study  of  a  number  of  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  in  which  serious  difficulties  of 
interpretation  are  presented  to  the  ordinary 
reader.  This  book,  like  the  one  entitled 
"  Who  Wrote  the  Bible  ?  "  has  been  written 
for  the  plain  people ;  it  is  not  for  the  schol- 
ars ;  they  will  find  in  it  nothing  which  they 
do  not  know ;  doubtless  they  will  fail  to  find 
much  which  they  deem  important.  Nor  is 
there  anything  here  with  which  intelligent 
pastors  are  not  familiar.  Most  of  the 
younger  ones  have  heard  all  that  is  here  pre- 
sented in  the  theological  seminaries  ;  in  their 
clubs  and  in  private  conversation  they  speak 
freely  of  these  matters.  But  in  their  ])ublic 
ministry  some  of  them  are  reticent.     They 


2  SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

think  it  unsafe  to  trust  the  people  with  the 
truth  about  the  Bible.  It  is  this  conclusion 
of  cowardice  which  deserves,  just  now,  to  be 
challenged  and  put  to  rout.  A  more  base- 
less, a  more  dangerous  theory  has  rarely  in- 
vaded the  minds  of  Christian  teachers.  The 
absurdity  of  it  ought  not  to  require  demon- 
stration. The  Bible  is  the  book  whose  pur- 
pose it  is  to  guide  men  unto  the  truth  ;  and 
we  are  saying,  under  our  breath,  that  it  is 
not  safe  to  let  men  know  the  truth  about  the 
Bible !  If  there  is  one  book  in  the  world 
concerning  which  all  men  are  entitled  to 
know  the  truth  and  the  whole  truth,  that 
book  is  the  Bible.  If  there  is  one  book  in 
the  world  concerninf]^  whose  orio-in  and  char- 
acter  there  must  be  no  concealment,  no  de- 
ceit, no  prevarication,  that  book  is  the  Bible. 
Nay,  if  there  is  one  book  in  the  world  which 
can  well  afford  to  have  the  whole  truth  about 
it  told,  that  book  is  the  Bible.  Counsels  of 
cowardice  in  dealing  with  this  book  are  an 
insult  to  the  book  and  to  the  Spirit  of  truth 
who  speaks  through  it.  If  the  Bible  is  a 
book  for  the  people,  intended  to  be  read  by 
them,  and  suited  for  their  instruction,  then 
they  are  entitled  to  know  all  the  facts  about 
it.     They  cannot  use  it  wisely  unless  they 


INTRODUCTORY  6 

know  what  kind  of  book  it  is.  Concealment 
of  the  truth  from  them  is  liable  to  result  in 
serious  practical  error.  A  long,  dark  cata- 
logue of  crimes  and  wrongs  can  be  traced 
directly  to  a  misunderstanding  of  the  true 
character  of  the  Bible  by  men  who  believed 
themselves  to  be  doing  God's  will.  The 
murder  of  Servetus  by  the  ministers  of 
Geneva  is  explained  by  their  erroneous  view 
of  the  Bible.  Since  an  infallible  book  justi- 
fied the  extermination  of  the  Canaanites,  it 
must  be  right,  they  argued,  to  exterminate 
heretics.  The  slaughter  of  witches  by  the 
thousand  was  the  direct  result  of  mistaken 
views  about  the  Bible.  Massacres  most  foul, 
persecutions  most  dire,  have  been  the  fruit 
of  mistaken  teachings  respecting  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Bible.  It  is  not  safe  to  put  the 
Bible  into  any  man's  hands  until  you  have 
told  him  distinctly  that  it  is  not  the  kind  of 
book  which  many  people  suppose  it  to  be. 
"  Of  crude  morality,"  says  Professor  A.  B. 
Bruce,  "  there  are  numerous  instances  in  the 
Old  Testament ;  and  no  one  can  use  it  as  a 
perfect  guide  who  does  not  understand  this." 
It  was  the  failure  to  understand  this  which 
led  to  the  terrible  persecutions  and  atrocities 
of  which  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  was 


4  SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

guilty.  ''  When  Innocent  III.  was  giving 
to  Arnold,  Abbot  of  Citeaux,  his  infamous 
advice  to  entrap  the  Count  of  Toulouse  to 
his  ruin,  he  appealed  t0'  Scriptural  authority 
both  for  his  falsity  and  his  ruthlessness. 
'  We  advise  you,'  he  said,  '  to  use  cunning 
with  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  treating  him  with 
a  wise  dissimulation,  that  the  other  heretics 
may  be  more  easily  destroyed.'  '  Slay  them 
all,'  said  Arnold  of  Citeaux  to  the  brutal 
Albio'ensian  Crusaders :  '  God  will  discrimi- 
nate  his  own.'  We  look  on  the  Crusades 
in  the  light  of  poetry  and  romance ;  we  ad- 
mire the  meekness  of  Godfrey  of  Bouillon 
in  refusing  to  wear  a  crown  of  gold  when 
his  Saviour,  had  worn  a  crown  of  thorns. 
But  how  did  the  Crusaders  behave  in  their 
journey,  in  the  brutal  massacre  of  defense- 
less and  unoffending  Jews  ?  And  how  did 
they  behave  in  Jerusalem  itself?  Happy 
the  innocent  women  and  children  whose 
heads  they  swept  off  with  one  stroke  of  the 
sword,  or  whom  they  stabbed  to  the  heart 
at  a  single  blow  !  But  besides  these  murders 
they  snatched  infants  from  their  mothers' 
arms  and  hurled  them  on  the  stones,  or  with 
horrid  mutilation  dashed  their  heads  against 
sharp  angles ;  and  they  made  men  and  boys 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

marks  for  their  archers,  shooting  at  them  till 
they  leapt  down  the  precipice  ;  and  others 
they  tortured  inconceivably  ;  and  others  they 
burnt  alive  at  slow  fires.  And  what  was 
the  plea  for  the  commission  of  these  and 
other  execrable  atrocities  ?  The  savage  com- 
mands to  exterminate,  said  to  have  been 
given  by  Moses  to  the  rude  serfs  who.  h^d 
fled  from  Egypt  into  the  wilderness."  ^ 
Doubtless  many  of  these  iniquities  were 
justified  to  the  minds  of  their  perpetrators 
through  a  misinterpretation  of  Scripture ; 
but  many  of  them,  also,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, were  founded  uj)on  an  exact  inter- 
pretation of  the  passages  quoted,  and  were 
a  simple  reproduction  of  the  spirit  of  those 
passages.  What  the  Crusaders  did  was  pre- 
cisely what  the  writer  of  the  One  Hundred 
and  Thirty-Seventh  Psalm  wanted  to  do. 
They  did  not  misinterpret  him.  And  the 
fundamental  error  of  many  of  those  who 
have  found  warrant  in  the  Bible  for  cruelty 
and  oppression  was  not  merely  their  faihire 
to  get  the  true  meaning  of  the  writers,  but 
their  failure  to  understand  the  true  nature 
of  the  book,  —  their  erroneous  belief  that  the 

1  Farrar's    The  Bible :    its  Meaning  and   Supremacy^ 
pp.  190, 191. 


b  SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

Bible  in  all  its  parts  is  equally  inspired  and 
equally  authoritative.  That  is  a  dangerous 
belief,  as  history  abundantly  proves. 

It  is  not  only  safe,  therefore,  to  tell  the 
people  the  truth  about  the  Bible,  it  is  very 
unsafe  to  conceal  from  them  the  truth,  and 
to  leave  them  under  the  bondage  of  an 
erroneous  tradition.  If  the  people  are  to 
handle  the  Bible  they  must  know  what  ele- 
ments it  contains,  and  how  to  discriminate 
among  them.  To  hold  that  it  is  not  safe  to 
give  them  this  knowledge  is  amazing  fatuity. 

This  is  the  conclusion  to  which  an  in- 
creasing number  of  wise  and  well-instructed 
Christian  ministers  have  been  gradually  com- 
ing for  quite  a  number  of  years.  The  state 
of  mind  in  which  they  now  find  themselves 
is  not  one  into  which  they  have  been  swept 
by  any  sudden  gust  of  popular  opinion ; 
much  less  have  they  been  seeking  for  reasons 
wherewith  they  might  weaken  the  authority 
of  the  Bible ;  it  is  the  reverent  and  careful 
study  of  the  Bible  itself  which  has  brought 
them  to  the  position  where  now  they  are. 
Ever  since  the  publication  of  Robertson 
Smith's  Lectures  on  "The  Old  Testament 
in  the  Jewish  Church,"  which,  to  many 
English-speaking   ministers,    was    the    first 


INTRODUCTORY  i 

example  of  a  sincere  and  scholarly  effort  to 
make  the  Bible  tell  its  own  story,  they  have 
been  slowly  coming  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  traditional  theory  of  the  Bible  cannot 
be  maintained  and  that  the  truth  concerning 
it  must  be  made  known  to  the  people.  Yet 
the  difficulty  and  discomfort  attendant  upon 
such  a  disclosure  often  deter  them.  The 
uprooting  of  such  a  tradition  is  not  a  wel- 
come undertaking.  Pain  is  given  to  many 
devout  souls ;  an  opportunity  of  accusation 
and  censure  is  afforded  to  those  ignorant 
and  jealous  defenders  of  the  faith  who  are 
always  on  the  watch  for  error,  and  an  occa- 
sion of  stumbling  is  furnished  to  those  who 
are  prone  to  evil.  I  cannot  wonder  that 
many  pastors  are  loath  to  speak  frankly 
about  this  matter ;  I  myself  hesitated  long, 
and  I  know  that  my  motives  were  not  wholly 
unworthy.  But  it  seems  clear  that  the  time 
for  frank  speaking  has  fully  come.  The 
question  is  up,  and  it  must  be  answered, 
one  way  or  the  other;  it  cannot  wisely  or 
honestly  be  evaded. 

Is  the  traditional  view  of  the  Bible  the 
true  view  ?  That  is  the  question  which  must 
be  met.  If  Mr.  Moody's  theory  of  the  Bible 
is  the  true  theory,  Mr.  Moody  is  right  in 


5  SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

demanding  that  it  be  boldly  and  faithfully 
taught,  and  that  no  man  be  countenanced  as  a 
Christian  minister  who  fails  to  teach  it.  If, 
on  the  contrary,  that  theory  of  the  Bible  is 
untrue,  those  who  know  it  to  be  untrue  must 
say  so  without  fear  or  equivocation.  Mr. 
Moody  is  right  in  insisting  that  between  his 
theory  of  the  Bible  and  that  which  he  op- 
poses no  compromise  is  possible.  If  he  is 
right,  the  scholars  against  whom  he  is  lift- 
ing up  his  voice  are  flagrantly  wrong.  If 
the  Bible  is  what  Mr.  Moody  declares  that 
it  is,  it  is  not  what  the  great  majority  of 
modern  Biblical  students  and  investigators 
believe  it  to  be.  It  is  one  or  the  other ;  it 
cannot  be  both.  "  How  can  absolute  infalli- 
bility be  blended  with  fallibility  ?  How  can 
infallible  truth  be  infallibly  conveyed  in  de- 
fective and  fallible  manuscrij^ts,  in  defective 
and  fallible  expressions,  or  in  translations 
which  are  liable  to  every  kind  of  error  ?"  ^ 

The  traditional  and  popular  theory  of  the 
Bible  asserts  that  the  Bible  contains  no 
errors  of  fact  or  doctrine ;  that  every  part 
of  it  was  written  under  immediate  divine 
supervision ;  that  it  is  God's  book ;  that  He  is 

1  Quoted  in  Farrar's  The  Bible :  its  Meaning  and  Su- 
premacy, p.  123. 


INTRODUCTORY  9 

the  author  of  the  whole  of  it ;  that  the  men 
who  wrote  it  were  simply  penmen,  following 
his  dictation;  that  every  portion  of  it  is 
equally  sacred,  equally  authoritative.  For 
substance,  this  is  the  theory.  The  theologi- 
cal refinements  about  the  difference  between 
verbal  and  plenary  inspiration,  the  specula- 
tions about  dynamic  inspiration  and  the  in- 
spiration of  illumination,  are  neither  known 
nor  intelligible  to  the  common  people ;  the 
view  which  they  hold  connotes  the  strongest 
implications  of  absolute  inerrancy.  They 
have  been  taught  and  they  believe,  what 
eminent  theologians  have  told  us,  that  "  a 
proved  error  in  Scripture  contradicts  not 
only  one  doctrine  but  the  Scripture's  claims, 
and  therefore  its  inspiration  in  making  those 
claims." 

This  popular  theory  of  the  Bible  is,  al- 
most wholly,  an  a  j^^i'Ori  theory.  It  is 
framed  from  men's  notion  of  what  must  be, 
rather  than  from  their  investigation  of  what 
is.  "What  we  need,"  they  argue,  "is  an 
infallible  guide.  A  guide  that  is  not  infalli- 
ble cannot  be  trusted.  If  God  has  procured 
the  writing  of  a  book  for  this  purpose  it 
must  be  infallible.  To  say  that  it  is  not  is 
to  oppugn  his  omniscience  or  his  goodness." 


10        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

This  is  the  process  of  reasoning  by  which 
the  theory  of  an  infallible  book  is  mainly 
supported.  It  rests  upon  the  assumption 
that  men  can  tell  beforeliand  what  God 
would  do. 

It  does  not  rest  on  any  claim  which  the 
Bible  makes  for  itself.  There  is  no  such 
claim.  In  the  nature  of  the  case  there  can 
be  none.  For  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  dis- 
cover, not  one  of  those  men  whose  writings 
have  been  gathered  together  in  the  collection 
which  we  name  the  Bible  had  any  concep- 
tion, when  he  was  writing,  that  his  work 
would  form  part  of  such  a  compilation.  He 
wrote  to  supply  some  immediate  need  of 
those  whom  he  knew ;  the  idea  that  he  was 
writing  part  of  what  we  call  a  Bible  did  not 
occur  to  him.  At  any  rate  no  intimation 
appears  of  such  a  consciousness.  How  then 
could  any  one  of  the  writers  of  this  book 
have  claimed  inerrancy  for  the  whole  book, 
since  the  existence  of  such  a  book  was  not 
conceived  by  any  of  them  ?  If  the  claim  of 
inerrancy  for  the  whole  Bible  is  set  up,  in 
the  Bible,  it  must,  in  the  nature  of  the  case, 
be  set  up  by  each  writer  for  his  own  writ- 
ings. But  in  fact  no  such  claim  is  made  by 
any  of  them. 


INTRODUCTORY  11 

It  is  true  that  the  New  Testament  writers 
refer  to  the  Old  Testament  writings,  which 
in  their  day  had  been  gathered  into  a  some- 
what indefinite  collection,  and  sometimes 
S23eak  of  them  with  strong  approval.  It  is 
not  true,  however,  that  they  giiarantee  the 
inerrancy  of  all  these  wi'itings.  The  text 
which  has  so  long  done  duty  in  support  of 
the  proposition  was  mistranslated.  It  is  not 
"All  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of 
God  and  is  profitable  for  doctrine ; "  it  is 
"Every  Scripture  inspired  of  God  is  also 
profitable  for  teaching."  So  runs  the  Revised 
Version.  To  make  this  cover  a  claim  for 
the  inerrancy  of  all  the  Old  Testament  writ- 
ings is  greatly  to  stretch  its  obvious  mean- 
ing. But  if  the  New  Testament  writers 
cannot  be  quoted  as  guaranteeing  the  iner- 
rancy of  the  Old  Testament  writings,  much 
less  can  they  be  called  as  witnesses  to  prove 
the  infallibility  of  that  portion  of  the  Bible 
which  they  themselves  contributed ;  for  of 
the  future  use  which  was  to  be  made  of  their 
narratives  and  letters  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  dreamed.  There  is  no  word,  therefore, 
in  the  Bible,  in  which  a  claim  of  inerrancy, 
covering  the  whole  Bible,  is  set  up. 

Not  only  so,  but  the  Bible  itself,  as  we 


12        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

have  it  in  our  hands,  is  all  the  while  crying 
out  to  us  that  it  is  not  the  kind  of  book 
which  tradition  represents  it  to  be.  On  al- 
most every  page  some  evidence  appears  that 
a  literal  exactitude  of  expression  has  not 
been  thought  of ;  that  we  have  the  work  of 
men  who  were  not  at  all  concerned  about 
verbal  or  literal  inerrancy.  If  any  words 
ought  to  have  been  infallibly  reported  they 
are  the  words  of  Jesus  Christ,  but  no  two  of 
the  Evangelists  give  us  a  verbally  identical 
report  of  what  He  said.  If  Matthew  re- 
ported Him  with  absolute  accuracy,  Mark 
and  Luke  did  not.  "  Take  the  words  in 
which  Christ  instituted  the  Last  Supper, 
and  his  last  words  to  his  discij)les  before  his 
ascension,  and  the  inscrij^tion  on  the  cross, 
and  the  Lord's  Prayer.  Amid  perfect  unity 
of  substance  there  is  no  identity  in  the  verbal 
details,  but  omissions,  additions,  and  verbal 
variations ;  and  in  St.  Luke  and  St.  Mat- 
thew we  have  variant  records  even  of  the 
Beatitudes  and  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount."  ^ 
The  quotations  made  by  the  New  Testa- 
ment writers  from  the  Old  Testament  writ- 
ings  show   how   little    they   esteemed    this 

1  Farrar's   The  Bible:    its  Meaning  and  Supremacy, 
p.  110. 


INTRODUCTORY  13 

doctrine  of  inerrancy.  Very  often  they  give 
the  substance  of  what  they  quote  but  change 
the  form  of  it  considerably  ;  most  often  they 
use  the  Septuagint,  the  Greek  transhition  of 
the  Okl  Testament,  which  is  a  faulty  version, 
often  inaccurate,  sometimes  misleading. 

In  many  such  ways  the  Bible  makes  haste 
to  disclaim  for  itself  that  character  of  ab- 
solute inerrancy  with  which  modern  biblio- 
laters have  sought  to  invest  it.  No  intelli- 
gent person  who  will  dismiss  from  his  mind 
all  the  notions  concerning  the  Bible  which 
have  been  supplied  to  him  from  tradition  and 
a  priori  reasoning,  and  will  let  the  Bible 
tell  him  its  own  story,  can  ever  derive  from 
an  inductive  study  of  its  pages  the  dogma 
of  Biblical  infallibility.  It  is  this  careful 
study  of  the  Bible,  and  nothing  else,  which 
has  resulted  in  rendering  incredible  the 
dogma  of  Biblical  infallibility. 

But  what  have  we  in  place  of  this  dogma  ? 
We  have  the  doctrine  of  a  book  which  is 
a  precious  depository  of  divine  truth,  —  of 
truth  contained  in  no  other  book ;  and  be- 
yond comparison  more  valuable  than  that 
contained  in  any  other  book ;  a  book  which 
gives  us  a  revelation  of  God  infinitely  more 
perfect  than  any  other  sacred  writings  have 


14        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

given  ns,  since  it  records  for  us  the  life  and 
words  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  is,  in  the  high- 
est sense,  the  manifestation  of  God;  and 
shows  us  the  preparation  for  his  mission  and 
the  beginning  of  the  great  consummation 
which  we  pray  for  when  we  say  "  Thy  king- 
dom come."  To  one  who  believes  that  no 
event  of  history  can  be  compared,  for  mo- 
mentousness,  with  the  advent  of  Jesus  Christ 
upon  this  planet,  it  is  not  necessary  to  prove 
that  the  book  which  tells  the  story  of  the 
life  of  Jesus  Christ  and  reports  for  us  the 
substance  of  what  He  said  is  not  to  be  ranked 
with  other  books ;  that  it  occupies  a  place 
apart,  and  is  worthy  to  be  called  the  Book 
of  books.  It  is  easy,  also,  for  one  who  re- 
gards Jesus  Christ  as  the  central  personality 
of  human  history,  to  see  that  many  records 
of  the  Bible  which  precede  his  advent,  as 
well  as  those  which  follow  his  ascension,  are 
so  closely  connected  with  Him  as  to  glow  with 
his  light  and  pulsate  with  his  life.  That 
these  records  are,  in  the  main,  veracious, 
is  not  to  be  gainsaid  ;  no  theory  which  treats 
the  Bible  as  a  tissue  of  pious  frauds  is  under 
discussion  here.  The  transcendent  value  of 
our  Bible  is  not  in  this  place  disputed.  He 
who  says  that  it  is  no  more  than  any  other 


mTRODUCTORY  15 

good  book  does  not  express  the  mind  of 
those  devout  critics  who  insist  that  the  truth 
about  it  must  be  tokl.  To  them  it  is  much 
more  than  any  other  book,  and  it  is  pre- 
cisely because  it  is  so  much  more  to  them 
than  any  other  book  can  be  that  they  de- 
mand that  it  shall  be  honestly  treated,  that 
no  lies  shall  be  told  about  it,  and  no  extrava- 
gant and  untenable  claims  made  for  it ;  that 
the  people  shall  be  taught  to  take  it  for 
what  it  is  and  to  use  it  as  it  ought  to  be 
used,  with  reverential  trust  but  with  rational 
discrimination  of  its  parts.  The  great  words 
with  which  Richard  Hooker  ends  the  second 
book  of  his  "  Ecclesiastical  Polity "  must 
be  laid  to  heart :  "  Whatsoever  is  spoken  of 
God  or  things  pertaining  to  God  otherwise 
than  truth  is,  though  it  seem  an  honor,  it  is 
an  injury.  And  as  incredible  praises  given 
unto  men  do  often  abate  and  impair  the 
credit  of  their  deserved  commendation,  so 
we  must  likewise  take  great  heed,  lest,  in 
attributing  to  Scripture  more  than  it  can 
have,  the  incredibility  of  that  do  cause  even 
those  things  which  it  hath  more  abundantly 
to  be  less  reverently  esteemed."  Such  is 
the  grave  disservice  which  many  of  its  super- 
serviceable  friends  are  now  rendering  to  the 


16        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

Bible.  "The  attempt,"  says  Mackennal, 
"  to  attach  a  name  of  special  sanctity  to  all 
the  contents  of  the  Bible  ends  in  the  degra- 
dation of  that  name  itself."  The  worst 
enemies  of  the  Bible  in  this  land  to-day  are 
some  of  its  most  orthodox  champions. 

That  these  are,  in  a  true  sense,  Sacred 
Writings,  and  that  they  contain  a  revela- 
tion from  God  found  nowhere  else  in  litera- 
ture, is  the  belief  of  the  writer  of  this  book. 
There  is  treasure  here,  beyond  price.  The 
only  question  is  whether,  like  every  other 
treasure  of  God  bequeathed  to  man,  it  is 
contained  in  an  earthen  vessel.  Is  there  a 
human  element  in  the  Bible  ?  In  an  im- 
portant sense  it  is  God's  book ;  is  it  in  any 
sense  man's  book  ?  That  men  had  some- 
thing to  do  with  the  writing  of  it  is  not 
denied,  but  how  much  ?  Were  they  only 
passive  instruments  in  the  hand  of  God,  — 
writing  machines  used  by  Him,  —  or  did 
their  own  thought  and  feeling  find  utterance 
in  these  words  ?  If  the  Bible  does  contain  a 
human  element,  it  must  contain  imperfec- 
tion. If  men's  thoughts  and  feelings  do 
find  expression  in  it,  more  or  less  of  error 
and  defective  moral  judgment  must  be  looked 
for.     What  are   the  facts?     What  does  a 


INTRODUCTORY  17 

reverent  study  of  the  Bible  show  us?  Is 
this  an  earthen  vessel  ?  Are  there  no  traces 
of  human  error  and  imperfection  in  the 
medium  through  which  this  revelation  is 
conveyed  to  us  ? 

One  who  starts  with  the  assumption  of 
Biblical  inerrancy  is,  of  course,  disabled 
for  such  an  investigation.  He  assumes  the 
thing  to  be  proved.  He  holds  that  because 
this  is  God's  book  it  cannot  contain  any 
admixture  of  error.  He  thinks  that  to  ques- 
tion the  accuracy  of  any  statement,  whether 
historical  or  scientific,  is  to  impugn  the 
veracity  of  the  Spirit  of  truth.  If  he  finds 
on  one  page  a  contradiction  of  what  is 
written  on  another,  he  shuts  his  eyes  and  de- 
nies that  such  a  contradiction  exists.  That 
which  is  infallible  is  beyond  the  judgment 
of  the  human  intellect.  A  man  who  begins 
with  the  theory  that  the  Bible  is  infallible 
deprives  himself  at  the  outset  of  the  right 
of  forming  or  expressing  any  opinion  con- 
cerning the  accuracy  or  inaccuracy  of  any 
statement  which  it  contains.  In  the  pre- 
sence of  such  an  assumption  the  human 
reason  is  paralyzed. 

Those  who  do  not  make  this  sweeping 
assumption,  and  who  suppose  that  our  rea- 


18        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

son  must  be  used  in  judging  the  Bible  as 
well  as  in  "  trying  the  spirits,"  cannot  fail 
to  discover,  in  a  reverent  study  of  the  Bible, 
many  evidences  of  human  error  and  imper- 
fection. They  are  here,  —  palpable,  unde- 
niable ;  and  it  is  fatuous  to  ignore  them  or 
exjilain  them  away.  The  treasure  is  in 
earthen  vessels.  The  a  prioi'i  theory  that  a 
book  of  God  must  be  errorless  is  shattered 
by  an  inductive  investigation  of  the  Bible 
itself.  The  men  who  wrote  these  books 
were  not  infallible  men,  and  they  were  not 
supernaturally  protected  against  error. 

What  is  it  that  we  find  when  we  rever- 
ently study  these  ancient  writings  ? 

We  find,  to  begin  with,  indubitable  evi- 
dence that  many  of  them  are  of  a  composite 
character,  made  up  of  documents  which 
have  been  pieced  together  not  always  skill- 
fully, since  they  sometimes  overlap,  and 
sometimes  show  wide  gaps  in  the  narrative. 
That  several  of  the  Old  Testament  books 
are  thus  constructed  is  scarcely  denied,  in 
these  days,  by  any  respectable  scholars.  One 
of  the  latest  of  the  conservative  writers  is 
willing  to  rank  among  the  orthodox,  "  schol- 
ars who  have  conceded  that  Genesis  discloses 
evidences  of  older  documentary  and  tradi- 


INTRODUCTORY  19 

tional  authorities,  in  narratives  and  snatches 
of  poetry,  and  genealogical  tables,  and  who 
admit  different  layers  of  legislation  in  the 
middle  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  not  neces- 
sarily committed  to  writing  by  Moses  ;  who, 
for  example,  grant  that  Deuteronomy  is  a 
separate  book,  completed  in  its  present  form 
after  the  death  of  Moses,  that  the  priest 
code  is  from  a  different  hand,  and  that 
Genesis  is  a  fusion  of  different  elements."  ^ 
But  a  book  which  has  been  constructed 
after  this  manner  cannot  be  the  kind  of 
book  which  the  people  believe  in.  It  is 
absurd  to  conceive  of  Omniscience  gleaning 
up  fragments  of  old  human  documents  and 
joining  them  together  after  this  fashion. 
Still  less  conceivable  is  it  that  the  work 
should  have  been  done  by  Omniscience  in 
that  manner  in  which,  as  we  shall  plainly 
see,  it  has  been  done  in  Joshua  and  Judges. 
Some  of  the  conservatives  make  merry  over 
the  analysis  by  the  Higher  Critics  of  the 
documents  into  the  four  original  sources, 
and  it  must  be  admitted  that  much  of  this 
work  seems  fanciful  in  the  extreme  ;  but  let 
these  conservative  teachers  take  pains  to 
point  out  to  their  congregations  such  pal- 
^  Behrends's  The  Old  Testament  under  Fire,  p.  103. 


20        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

pable  facts  as  are  contained  in  the  last  chap- 
ters of  Joshua  and  the  first  chapters  of 
Judges,  and  reconcile  them  with  the  theory 
that  Omniscience  is  responsible  for  the  au- 
thorship of  these  books.  Such  facts  as  these 
require  explanation.  They  do  not  militate 
against  the  belief  that  the  record  is,  on  the 
whole,  true  and  valuable  ;  but  they  show 
that  it  was  put  together  by  men  who  were 
human  enough  to  make  mistakes  ;  and  they 
effectually  dispose  of  the  theory  that  a  super- 
human freedom  from  error  was  conferred 
upon  all  Biblical  writers. 

We  find,  also,  that  the  Bible  contains  a 
considerable  element  of  religious  fiction. 
That  the  books  of  Esther  and  Daniel  and 
Jonah  belong  in  this  class  of  literature  will 
be  made  evident,  I  trust,  in  the  following 
studies.  The  uses  of  such  fiction  are  mani- 
fest, and  the  great  ethical  and  spiritual 
value  of  some  of  these  ancient  stories  will 
appear  ;  but  as  soon  as  we  have  recognized 
the  true  character  of  these  writings,  the 
standards  by  which  we  judge  them  must  be 
changed.  We  are  no  longer  burdened  with 
proofs  of  the  historicity  of  imaginative  tales  ; 
our  attention  may  rest  upon  the  lessons 
which  they  are  intended  to  convey. 


INTRODUCTORY  21 

Most  important  of  all  is  the  discovery 
which  must  be  made  by  candid  students  of 
the  Old  Testament,  that  these  Scriptures 
represent  a  moral  development,  whose  ear- 
lier stages  connote  an  imperfect  morality. 
It  is  not  enough  to  say  that  evil  deeds  and 
bad  characters  are  faithfully  portrayed ;  con- 
duct which  falls  far  below  the  morality  of 
the  New  Testament  is  sympathetically  de- 
scribed; the  writers  admire  and  approve 
actions  which  the  law  of  Christ  expressly 
condemns.  These  men  of  the  olden  time 
sometimes  claim  the  divine  authority  for 
the  performance  of  deeds  which  directly 
contravene  the  elementary  principles  of  mo- 
rality ;  they  represent  God  as  commanding 
men  to  commit  the  most  abominable  crimes. 
It  is  not  true  that  these  atrocities  are  com- 
mon in  the  Old  Testament :  other  elements 
prevail  in  all  these  ancient  records,  and  the 
humanity  and  compassion  which  they  reveal 
are  signs  of  the  Divine  Spirit  working  out 
in  the  customs  and  laws  of  Israel  a  large 
and  genial  morality ;  but  mingled  with  all 
this  are  the  survivals  of  old  barbarisms, 
which  still  darken  the  lives  of  the  people 
and  color  the  judgments  of  the  writers  of 
these  Scriptures.     There   can  be  no  doubt 


22        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

that  Moses  believed  himself  to  be  com- 
manded by  God  to  order  the  extermination 
of  all  the  Midianites ;  that  he  supposed 
himself  to  be  righteously  indignant  when 
the  warriors  spared  the  women  and  chil- 
dren ;  and  that  the  compromise  made  with 
the  warriors  by  which  they  were  finally 
required  to  kill  all  the  captive  males  old 
and  young,  and  the  married  women,  but 
were  permitted  to  keep  for  themselves  the 
unmarried  women,  represents  the  ideas  of 
morality  which  were  current  in  those  days. 
We  must  believe,  however,  that  the  writer 
was  mistaken  when  he  represented  that  all 
this  was  done  under  the  command  of  Je- 
hovah. And  when  the  writer  of  the  book 
of  Deuteronomy  recites  a  law  requiring  the 
Israelites  utterly  to  destroy  every  living 
thing  in  the  neighboring  cities  which  they 
were  about  to  besiege  and  capture,  —  "to 
save  nothing  alive  that  breathe th  ;  "  and 
when  Samuel  gives  orders  to  Saul  going 
forth  against  the  Amalekites,  to  "  slay  both 
man  and  woman,  infant  and  suckling,  ox 
and  sheep,  camel  and  ass,"  we  must  sup- 
pose that  this  does  not  really  represent  the 
mind  of  the  Spirit.  Doubtless  the  people 
who   did   these   things   believed   that   they 


I  NT  ROD  UCTOR  Y  23 

were  doing  God's  will ;  but  when  the  writ- 
ers that  record  their  doings  explicitly  tell 
us  that  they  were  acting  under  the  divine 
direction,  we  know  that  the  writers  must  be 
mistaken.  There  is  nothing  else  to  say 
about  it ;  excuses,  evasions,  palliations  are 
not  only  futile,  they  are  an  insult  to  com- 
mon sense.  That  the  moral  standards  of 
these  Old  Testament  writers  are  sometimes 
low  and  defective  is  truth  that  no  honest 
man  must  deny.  It  is  not  merely  true  that 
they  describe  for  us  unworthy  actions  :  it  is 
true  that  they  sometimes  justify  and  com- 
mend unworthy  actions. 

Now  all  this,  which  the  careful  student  of 
the  Bible  is  sure  to  find,  must  be  distinctly 
told  to  all  the  people.  It  is  quite  contrary 
to  what  they  have  been  commonly  taught 
respecting  the  Bible,  but  it  is  the  truth,  and 
they  need  to  know  it.  The  composite  char- 
acter of  many  of  these  writings  ;  the  way  in 
which  they  are  pieced  together,  out  of  older 
documents  ;  the  fact  that  some  of  them  are 
undoubtedly  works  of  fiction ;  the  fact  that 
amidst  all  that  is  pure  and  benign  in  their 
teachings  there  are  elements  of  crude  and 
imperfect  morality,  —  commands  attributed 
to  God,  which  He  could  never  have  given,  — ■ 


24        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

all  this  the  minister  of  the  gospel  in  these 
days  is  bound  to  teach  his  people.  When 
this  has  been  clearly  taught  he  may  proceed 
to  settle  his  account  with  the  Higher  Critics, 
but  not  till  then.  After  he  has  shown  his 
people  the  truth  respecting  these  most  pal- 
pable results  of  modern  Biblical  study,  he 
may  hew  Wellhausen  in  pieces  before  the 
Lord,  as  Samuel  hewed  Agag.  But  per- 
haps, by  that  time,  there  will  be  less  need 
of  the  immolation. 

For  myself  I  am  not  disposed  to  deny 
that  much  which  has  been  given  out  by  the 
Higher  Critics  appears  to  be  far-fetched  and 
fanciful.  The  minute  analysis  of  the  Hexa- 
teuch  which  some  of  them  have  set  before  us 
does  not  commend  itself  to  my  credence. 
And  many  of  their  conjectures  respecting 
dates  and  divisions  of  documents  appear  to 
me  untenable.  But  this  is  the  history  of 
every  science.  Always  the  atmosphere  of 
active  scientific  research  is  full  of  visionary 
guesses  and  wild  hypotheses.  All  sorts  of 
theories  are  put  forth  tentatively^  to  chal- 
lenge attention  and  to  await  verification. 
For  some  of  these,  foundations  of  fact  are 
finally  supplied ;  many  of  them  quickly 
perish.     The  science  of   Biblical   Criticism 


INTRODUCTORY  25 

must  pass  through  the  same  vicissitudes. 
Many  conjectures  have  been  ventured  for 
which  sufficient  evidence  has  not  been 
found.  But  not  a  few  hypotheses  have 
been  abundantly  verified.  The  assured  re- 
sults of  this  work  are  now  considerable.  If 
some  of  the  students  who  have  been  ex^^lor- 
ing  this  field  have  seemed  less  reverent  than 
could  have  been  desired,  and  if  some  have 
even  exhibited  a  disposition  to  discredit  the 
Scriptures,  there  has  still  been  a  large  num- 
ber of  devout  and  careful  men  to  whom  the 
Bible  is  a  sacred  book,  and  who  are  not  dis- 
posed to  admit  any  new  theory  respecting 
its  origin  for  which  there  is  not  ample  proof. 
The  patient  studies  of  these  reverent  scholars 
have  made  some  things  very  plain.  And 
those  who  adversely  discuss  the  Higher 
Criticism  are  bound  to  bring  out  these  well- 
established  results,  and  make  them  clear  to 
the  minds  of  those  to  whom  they  speak.  It 
is  easy  to  make  a  large  and  impressive  ex- 
hibit of  the  things  that  have  not  been  proven 
and  that  probably  never  will  be  proven  by 
the  Higher  Critics,  and  thus,  by  implication, 
to  cast  discredit  upon  all  their  work  ;  there 
is  no  branch  of  science  which  cannot  easily, 
in   this  way,  be  rendered  ridiculous  in  the 


26        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

eyes  of  the  un instructed.  Any  expert  rhe- 
torician could  take  the  subject  of  chemistry 
or  electricity  and  gather  up  the  visionary 
and  exploded  hypotheses  concerning  it,  and 
hold  them  up  to  ridicule,  and  make  a  great 
many  ignorant  people  believe  that  they  are 
pseudo-sciences  ;  that  there  is  nothing  in 
them  but  unmitigated  nonsense.  We  have 
had  a  good  deal  of  this  kind  of  work,  in  our 
pulpits  and  newspapers,  from  those  who 
have  sought  to  discredit  the  Higher  Criti- 
cism. It  is  very  effective  work ;  the  igno- 
rance and  prejudice  to  which  appeal  is  made 
are  highly  responsive  to  such  incitement ; 
and  one  can  without  difficulty  win  great  ap- 
plause as  a  defender  of  the  faith  ;  but  it  be- 
comes, now  and  then,  a  serious  question  just 
how  much  popular  applause  a  public  teacher 
can  safely  allow  himself.  And  it  may  be 
well  to  suggest  that  those  who  undertake 
the  public  discussion  of  the  Higher  Criticism 
ought  to  give  some  attention  not  merely  to 
its  failures,  but  also  to  its  admitted  suc- 
cesses. If  with  a  sincere  disposition  to 
know  the  truth  they  will  try  to  inform  them- 
selves respecting  the  points  which  have  been 
fairly  settled  by  these  studies,  and  if  with 
entire  candor  they  will  lay  these  results  be- 


INTRODUCTORY  27 

fore  their  hearers,  they  may  then,  with  pro- 
priety, expose  the  vagaries  of  Biblical  science. 
But  when  the  clear  gains  of  criticism  have 
been  laid  before  the  people,  the  traditional 
theory  of  the  Bible  will  have  passed  from. 
the  earth  ;  and  the  teachers  will  find  enough 
to  do  in  furnishing;  to  their  cono^reo-atioiis 
a  new  working  theory,  by  means  of  which 
these  sacred  writings  may  be  firmly  held 
and  profitably  used. 

What,  then,  shall  wise  pastors  tell  their 
people  concerning  this  book,  and  the  manner 
in  which  they  may  use  it  ?  It  is  safe  to  tell 
them  that  the  book  is  a  revelation  from 
God,  since  it  contains  the  record  of  the  Life 
that  is  the  light  of  men ;  and  gives  us  the 
history  of  the  providential  preparation  of 
the  world  for  his  manifestation,  and  the 
narrative  of  the  planting  and  training  of 
his  Church.  It  is  not  an  infallible  book  ; 
but  it  is  a  book  in  which  life  and  immor- 
tality are  brought  to  light ;  it  is  the  one 
book  of  all  the  world  which  clearly  shows 
men  what  life  means,  and  what  are  the  true 
relations  of  the  life  that  now  is  to  the  life 
that  is  to  come.  To  say  that  all  parts  of  it 
are  equally  inspired  and  equally  authorita- 
tive is  to  make  a  foolish  assertion  ;  but  it  is 


28        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

not  difficult  for  those  who  will  seek  divine 
guidance  to  find  it  in  the  truth  which  will 
make  them  wise  unto  salvation.  Without 
the  guidance  of  the  S23irit  of  truth,  the 
Bible  is  no  better  than  any  other  book  ;  with 
that  guidance  no  man  will  go  astray  in  his 
interpretation. 

To  those  who  believe  that  the  Incarnation 
is  the  central  fact  of  human  history,  the 
words  of  Christ  must  be  the  master  words 
of  this  literature  and  of  all  literature.  In 
these  we  have  a  standard  by  which  all  these 
writings  must  be  judged.  Whatever  in  any 
part  of  this  book  agrees  with  "  these  say- 
ings "  of  his  we  may  safely  accept  as  divine 
truth  ;  whatever  contradicts  or  conflicts  with 
his  teachings  we  may  regard  as  a  partial 
revelation. 

Yet  it  must  not  be  inferred  that  those 
portions  of  the  Bible  in  which  the  revelation 
is  partial  and  the  morality  imperfect  are  of 
no  use  to  us.  They  are  of  great  value. 
They  show  us  the  stages  through  which 
religion  and  morality  have  passed  ;  they 
illustrate  for  us  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
development  of  the  human  race.  And  just 
as  embryology  shows  us  that  all  human 
beings   pass   through  every  form  of   lower 


INTRODUCTORY  29 

life  to  reach  the  human  form  divine,  so  we, 
in  our  moral  development,  often  find  our- 
selves facing  the  same  problems  which  an- 
cient Israel  was  forced  to  confront,  and  the 
history  is  full  of  instruction  for  us.  Those 
naive  biographies,  also,  which  bring  the 
ancient  men  so  vividly  before  us,  never 
concealing  their  weaknesses  and  crimes,  are 
profitable  for  instruction  in  righteousness. 
Abraham  and  Joseph  and  Moses  and  Joshua 
and  Samuel  and  David,  as  they  appear  in 
this  literature,  have  guided  the  aims  and  in- 
vigorated the  courage  of  many  generations 
of  Bible  readers.  We  must,  indeed,  be  on 
our  guard  against  accepting  all  the  judg- 
ments of  the  writers  of  these  sketches  ;  for 
sometimes,  as  we  have  seen,  they  recount 
with  evident  approbation  deeds  that  are  not 
worthy  of  our  praise  ;  but  in  far  the  larger 
number  of  cases  the  judgment  as  it  stands 
is  true,  and  needs  no  correction  in  the  light 
of  Christian  standards.  There  are  even 
Psalms  in  the  Hebrew  Psalter  whose  senti- 
ment no  Christian  can  utter  ;  but  the  greater 
number  of  them  give  wings  to  our  faith  and 
adoration  ;  how  many  of  our  loftiest  thoughts 
and  noblest  purposes  have  found  voice  in 
these  hymns  of  the  olden  times !     And  the 


30        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

great  prophecies  —  how  constantly  do  they 
lift  up  the  loftiest  standards  before  men  and 
nations !  Verily  the  truth  is  here  in  these 
ancient  Scriptures,  and  it  is  for  us  to  sepa- 
rate it  from  the  error  with  which  it  is  min- 
gled. And  that  is  by  no  means  an  improb- 
able task.  The  Spirit  of  all  truth  who 
speaks  to  us  through  these  Scriptures  waits 
to  guide  us  in  all  our  study  of  them.  He  is 
as  near  to  honest  and  reverent  souls  to-day 
as  ever  He  was  ;  and  his  illmninating  ray 
will  make  all  these  doubtful  things  plain. 
Dean  Farrar's  wise  words  are  worth  repeat- 
ing:— 

"  If  it  be  asked,  How  then  are  we  to 
know  what  is  the  word  of  God  contained  in 
Scripture  ?  or  if  it  be  argued  that  it  is  im- 
possible to  disintegrate  the  word  of  God 
from  the  word  of  man,  the  answer  is  that 
this  is  exactly  what  Christians  have  already 
had  to  do  again  and  again.  They  have 
been  thrown,  just  as  the  Jews  were,  on  the 
ordinary  means  of  criticism  and  spiritual 
discernment  to  discover  what  entire  books 
did,  and  what  did  not,  deserve  the  title  of 
canonical ;  and  their  decision  has  repeatedly 
shown  itself  to  be  fallible.  To  this  day  the 
millions  of   the  Roman   Church   accept  as 


INTRODUCTORY  31 

canonical  books  of  the  Apocrypha,  some 
of  which  fall  far  below  the  level  of  many 
writino's  both  heathen  and  Christian.  For 
some  centnries  books  were  admitted  into  the 
canon  which  are  now  excluded  from  it,  or 
books  excluded  from  it  which  are  now  ad- 
mitted to  belong  to  it.  The  question  '  How 
then  are  we  to  recognize  the  word  of  God  ? ' 
is  an  entirely  faithless  one.  We  recognize 
it  precisely  as  the  Christian  Church  has 
always  done.  All  Christians  have  set  aside 
lar^e  sections  of  the  Old  Testament  as  be- 
longing  to  an  abrogated  dispensation.  They 
even  treat  some  passages  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  not  binding  on  them  in  the  letter. 
They  set  aside  no  small  part  of  Scripture  as 
having  been  relative  and  transient.  They 
recognize  that  the  Tabernacle  was  a  glorious 
symbol,  but  do  not  find  anything  which 
specially  reaches  them  in  long  chapters  about 
its  upholstery  and  joinery,  '  its  boxes  and 
tables  and  rings  and  lamj^s  and  loops  and 
bowls  and  curtains  and  candlesticks  and  ram 
skins  and  badger  skins  and  pans  and  shovels 
and  basins  and  clothes  '  —  quite  irrespective 
of  the  question  whether  they  emanated  from 
Moses,  or  whether,  as  many  critics  suppose, 
they  are  not  much  older  than  the  era  of  the 


32        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

Exile.  In  spite  of  the  Council  of  Jerusalem, 
which  claimed  the  direction  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  they  do  not  abstain  from  blood  or 
from  things  strangled.  In  spite  of  St. 
James,  they  do  not  anoint  the  sick  with  oil. 
If  they  were  not  constantly  falling  into  the 
error  of  forgetting  that  Christ  is  '  alive  for- 
evermore,'  —  if  they  believed  his  promise 
that  the  Spirit  should  lead  them  unto  all 
essential  truth,  they  would  not  try  to  de- 
throne Him  and  set  up  a  book  in  his  place. 
Is  it  indeed  the  case  that  we  have  nothing 
to  guide  us  with  certainty  about  the  way 
of  salvation,  unless  we  put  a  genealogy  of 
Chronicles  or  a  chapter  of  Numbers  or 
Esther  on  the  same  level  as  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  ?  Did  not  St.  John  tell  us  to  try 
the  spirits  ?  Did  not  St.  Paul  say,  '  Prove 
all  things  ;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good  '  ? 
Did  not  our  Lord  ask  '  Why  even  of  your- 
selves judge  ye  not  what  is  right ? '  'To 
those  who  follow  their  reason  in  the  inter- 
pretation of  the  Scriptures,'  said  Lord  Falk- 
land, '  God  will  either  give  his  grace,  or 
assistance  to  find  the  truth,  or  his  pardon  if 
they  miss  it.'  '  If  after  using  diligence  to  find 
truths  we  fall  into  error,  when  the  Scriptures 
are  not  plain,'  said  Chillingworth,  '  there  is 


INTRODUCTORY  33 

no  clanger  in  it.  They  that  err  and  they 
that  do  not  err  shall  both  be  saved.'  "  ^ 

But  some  cautious  teachers  who  admit  all 
that  has  been  urged  are  yet  fearful  of  the 
results  which  may  follow  the  abandonment, 
by  the  people,  of  the  dogma  of  Biblical  infal- 
libility. The  Bible,  they  say,  has  been  the 
great  promoter  of  social  and  national  well- 
being.  The  lands  where  the  Bible  has  been 
read  and  honored  are  the  lands  that  are  hap- 
py and  prosperous  and  free.  The  Queen  of 
England  was  speaking  advisedly  when  she 
told  the  Indian  prince  that  the  Bible  was 
the  source  of  England's  greatness.  And 
will  not  the  change  which  now  is  passing 
upon  the  opinions  of  Christians  respecting 
the  character  of  the  Bible  so  weaken  its  au- 
thority that  we  shall  lose  all  these  precious 
fruits  of  its  influence  ?  Will  the  Bible 
which  criticism  now  offers  us  have  the  power 
to  lead  and  mould,  to  leaven  and  control 
society,  which  the  Bible  of  the  last  three 
centuries  has  wielded  ? 

The  question  is  one  that  calls  for  serious 
reply.  In  the  first  place,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted that  it  was  not  the  error  and  the 
imperfect  morality  of  the  Bible  which  gave 

1  The  Bible  :  its  Meaning  and  Supremacy^  pp.  127-129. 


34        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

it  the  kind  of  power  referred  to.  It  was 
not  tlie  human  elements  which  it  contains, 
nor  the  partiahiess  and  defectiveness  of  its 
revelation  which  gave  it  the  hold  that  it  has 
had  upon  the  life  of  the  Protestant  nations. 
So  far  as  these  errors  have  been  taken  for 
truths,  and  this  imperfect  morality  has  been 
accepted  as  perfect  morality,  so  far  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Bible  must  have  been  impaired. 
It  must  be  better  to  recognize  defects,  even 
in  the  Bible,  as  defects,  than  to  mistake 
them  for  excellences. 

Nor  could  it  have  been  the  simple  belief 
that  the  Bible  is  infallible  which  has  wrought 
all  these  beneficent  wonders.  A  mere  intel- 
lectual conviction  of  that  kind,  even  if  it  is  in 
accordance  with  fact,  has  no  practical  value. 
A  man  may  believe  every  article  of  the  most 
orthodox  creed  and  be  no  better  for  it.  But 
if  we  now  clearly  see  that  the  Bible  is  not 
infallible,  the  belief  in  its  infallibility  must 
have  been  an  erroneous  belief.  Shall  we  say 
that  the  moral  progress  which  has  been  so 
closely  connected  with  the  Bible  is  the  fruit 
of  an  erroneous  belief  ?  Shall  we  say  that 
the  only  way  to  secure  a  continuance  of  this 
progress  is  to  exhort  the  people  to  hold  fast 
to  an  opinion  which  is  paljDably  unsound  ? 


INT  ROD  UCTOR  Y  35 

In  truth,  it  is  not  the  belief  of  the  people 
in  the  inerrancy  of  the  Bible  which  has 
brought  forth  this  precious  fruit ;  it  is  their 
belief  of  the  truth  which  the  Bible  reveals. 
It  is  the  belief  in  Jesus  Christ  and  in  his  gos- 
pel ;  the  acceptance  of  the  truth  He  taught ; 
the  faithful  following  of  the  life  He  lived, 
which  has  made  the  desert  to  rejoice  and  the 
wilderness  to  blossom  as  the  rose.  It  is  the 
outflowing  into  the  world  of  the  truth  and 
love  of  which  the  Bible  is  full  that  has  done 
all  this  glorious  work  for  mankind.  That 
truth  and  love  are  there  to-day ;  not  one  jot 
or  tittle  has  been  taken  from  them,  nor  can 
be  ;  they  can  speak  for  themselves,  and  will 
speak  ;  na3%  it  is  not  within  the  power  of  man 
to  silence  them.  To  recognize  the  fact  that 
the  vessel  is  partly  earthen  does  not  dim  the 
lustre  of  the  treasure  it  contains ;  it  rather 
enhances  it.  To  admit  that  Esther  exhibits 
a  low  morality  does  not  deprive  the  book  of 
Isaiah  of  any  of  its  glorious  meaning,  nor  cast 
any  stigma  upon  the  noble  philosophy  of  Job. 
To  admit  that  the  One  Hundred  and  Ninth 
Psalm  is  the  utterance  of  a  dark  spirit  does 
not  rob  the  Twenty-Third  Psalm  of  any  of 
its  uplifting  consolation.  If  the  Light  of 
the  world  is  in  that  book  it  will  continue  to 


36        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

shine ;  no  speculations  of  man  can  cloud  its 
radiance. 

It  is,  however,  probable  that  the  deepest 
reason  for  the  reluctance  of  some  to  aban- 
don the  dogma  of  Biblical  infallibility  has 
not  yet  been  mentioned.  That  is  the  notion 
that  some  kind  of  infallible  guide  is  neces- 
sary in  religion  ;  that  it  is  quite  impossible 
for  us  to  live  worthily  or  to  teach  correctly, 
or  to  maintain  and  propagate  the  institutions 
of  religion,  unless  we  have  some  standard 
or  authority  to  which  we  may  make  aj^peal, 
whose  decisions  are  errorless  and  final.  This 
is  the  fundamental  assumption  of  Roman 
Catholic  philosophy;  it  has  resulted  in  the 
erection  of  an  infallible  church,  over  which 
an  infallible  Pope  now  rules.  When  the 
Reformers  abandoned  the  infallible  church 
they  still  retained  the  fundamental  assump- 
tion on  which  it  was  based  and  substituted  for 
a  Church  a  Book.  It  is  now  about  time  to 
see  that  the  fundamental  assumption  is  all 
wrong  ;  that  no  infallible  rule  in  religion  is 
either  desirable  or  possible.  We  want  guid- 
ance, instruction,  help  ;  we  do  not  want  any 
form  of  words  which  can  be  pointed  to  as 
fixed,  changeless,  absolute  truth,  to  which 
nothing  can  be  added,  and  from  which  no- 


INTRODUCTORY  37 

tiling  can  be  subtracted.  We  do  not  need 
it,  and  we  cannot  have  it.  We  cannot  have 
it  because  words  are  not  fixed  symbols ;  they 
change  their  meaning  as  men  change ;  a 
phrase  which  meant  one  thing  five  hundred 
years  ago  may  mean  something  quite  differ- 
ent to-day.  An  infallible  revelation  cannot 
be  committed  to  such  a  fluctuating  medium 
as  language  is.  And  there  are  certain  pecul- 
iarities of  the  lano:uao:es  in  which  the  Bible 
was  written  —  the  Hebrew  language  espe- 
cially  —  which  render  this  conception  of  an 
inerrant  revelation  a  simple  absurdity  to 
any  one  who  knows  anything  about  them.^ 

But  such  a  fixed  and  infallible  revelation 
is  not  only  precluded  by  the  very  nature  of 
language,  it  does  not  conform  to  the  laws  of 
the  spiritual  realm.  We  are  always  dealing, 
in  this  realm,  with  the  phenomena  of  life 
and  growth,  and  infallibility  is  a  conception 
which  is  wholly  inapplicable  to  anything  that 
lives  and  grows.  It  is  a  purely  mechanical 
idea ;  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  the  phenom- 
ena of  life ;  it  belongs  in  quite  another  or- 
der. There  are  no  infallible  spring  beauties, 
crocuses,  elm-trees,  ears  of  corn.  There  is 
what  we  may  consider  an  ideal,  a  type,  for 

1  See  Who  Wrote  the  Bible  1  cliap.  xii. 


38        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

all  these  organisms ;  but  that  is  something 
purely  intellectual,  —  something  that  no  man 
ever  saw.  Some  organisms  come  nearer  to 
the  imagined  type  than  others ;  but  abso- 
lute perfection  of  structure  and  form  does 
not  exist.  There  is  always  room  for  im- 
provement. Nothing  into  which  God  has 
breathed  his  life  is  infallible.  Nothing  that 
grows  is  even  for  one  moment  infallible ;  the 
very  condition  of  progress  makes  a  fixed 
standard  inconceivable.  Infallibility  may 
be  predicated  of  a  watch  or  a  rifle  or  a  cash 
register,  —  not  of  a  fruit  tree  or  a  field  of 
grain  or  a  human  life.  Your  artist  will  tell 
you  that  he  has  never  seen  a  perfect  face  ; 
your  oculist  that  he  has  never  seen  a  perfect 
eye.  And  when  we  pass  into  the  spiritual 
realm  thB  very  law  of  the  highest  life  involves 
perpetual  movement  forward  from  the  less  to 
the  greater,  from  one  degree  of  virtue  and 
attainment  to  another.  Knowledge  must 
always  grow  from  more  to  more,  and  our 
ideals  themselves,  the  very  norms  of  charac- 
ter, must  change  and  enlarge  as  experience 
widens.  Robert  Browning  has  shown  us  the 
true  philosophy  of  spiritual  life  :  — 

"  By  such  confession  straight  he  falls 
Into  man's  place,  a  thing  nor  God  nor  beast, 


INTRODUCTORY  39 

Made  to  know  that  he  can  know,  and  not  more  : 

Lower  than  God  who  knows  all  and  can  all, 

Higher  than  beasts  which  know  and  can  so  far 

As  each  beast's  limit,  perfect  to  an  end. 

Nor  conscious  that  they  know,  nor  craving  more  ; 

While  man  knows  partly  and  conceives  beside, 

Creeps  ever  on  from  fancies  to  the  fact, 

And  in  this  striving,  this  converting  air 

Into  a  solid  he  may  grasp  and  use, 

Finds  progress,  man's  distinctive  mark  alone. 

Not  God's  and  not  the  beasts' ;  God  is,  they  are, 

Man  partly  is  and  wholly  hopes  to  be. 

Such  progress  could  no  more  attend  his  soul 

Were  all  it  struggles  after  found  at  first 

And  guesses  changed  to  knowledge  absolute, 

Than  motion  wait  his  body,  were  all  else 

Than  it  the  solid  earth  on  every  side, 

Where  now  tlirough  space  he  moves  from  rest  to  rest. 

Man,  therefore,  thus  conditioned,  must  expect 

He  could  not,  what  he  knows  now,  know  at  first ; 

What  he  considers  tliat  he  knows  to-day 

Gone  but  to-morrow  he  will  find  misknown  ; 

Getting  increase  of  knowledge,  since  he  learns 

Because  he  lives,  which  is  to  be  a  man. 

Set  to  instruct  himself  by  his  past  self  ; 

First,  like  the  brute,  obliged  by  facts  to  learn, 

Next  as  man  may,  obliged  by  his  own  mind. 

Bent,  habit,  nature,  knowledge  turned  to  law. 

God's  gift  was  that  man  should  conceive  of  truth, 

And  yearn  to  gain  it,  catching  at  mistake 

As  midway  help  till  he  reach  fact  indeed." 

If  this  is  the  true  philosophy  of  human 
development,  then  it  is  evident  enough  that  a 
precise  and  inflexible  rule  of  life  is  the  very 


40        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

thing  that  man  does  not  want.  "  Forgetting 
the  things  which  are  behind,  stretching  for- 
ward to  the  things  which  are  before  '^  —  this 
is  the  posture  of  the  spiritual  mind.  All 
our  thoughts  about  the  spiritual  life,  all  our 
ideas  of  conduct  and  character,  must  conform 
to  this  fundamental  fact.  Rigid  and  inflex- 
ible formularies  are  not  to  be  desired.  The 
revelation  which  we  need  from  God  is  not 
an  infallible  rule,  applicable  to  all  condi- 
tions of  life  and  grades  of  intelligence ;  it  is 
rather  a  path  of  light  through  the  ages,  giv- 
ing us  direction,  but  leaving  us  free,  in  the 
light  of  great  principles,  to  settle  for  our- 
selves the  problems  of  every  hour,  and  of 
every  generation.  Such  a  guide  the  Bible 
is.  When  we  use  it  as  it  was  meant  to  be 
used  we  find  wise  guidance  and  safe  con- 
duct through  life ;  we  have  a  lamp  for  our 
feet  and  a  light  to  our  path.  When  we  take 
its  every  word  as  an  infallible  rule  of  life 
it  makes  us  often  bigots,  not  seldom  j^erse- 
cutors,  sometimes  murderers.  The  letter 
killeth  ;  the  spirit  giveth  life.  Strange  that 
with  such  a  solemn  warning  speaking  al- 
ways to  us  out  of  the  Bible  itself,  we  should 
have  chained  ourselves  so  long  to  the  dogma 
of  verbal  inerrancy  !     The  very  thing  which 


INTRODUCTORY  41 

the  apostle  tells  us  is  fatal  to  the  life  of 
faith  is  the  thing  which  we  have  insisted  on 
as  the  corner-stone  of  orthodoxy. 

Let  lis  trust  that  the  times  of  this  igno- 
rance are  now  well  past.  We  are  learning 
to  free  ourselves  from  the  bondage  of  the 
letter.  Having  found  that  God  has  not 
given  us  an  infallible  Book,  it  is  beginning 
to  dawn  on  us  that  He  never  meant  to  give 
us  any  such  thing  ;  that  all  his  plans  for  our 
spiritual  education  would  have  been  de- 
feated if  He  had  done  it.  But  we  do  believe 
that  He  has  given  us,  in  his  good  providence, 
a  book  of  peculiar  worth,  a  book  out  of 
which  we  may  learn  more  concerning  Him 
and  his  kincfdom  of  riohteousness  and  love 
than  from  all  the  rest  of  the  books  in  the 
world  ;  a  book  which  tells  us  many  of  the 
things  which  it  is  of  the  utmost  consequence 
that  we  should  know,  and  which  are  found 
nowhere  else  ;  a  book  which  it  becomes  us 
to  study  reverently  and  patiently,  penetrat- 
ing below  the  letter  that  killeth  to  the  spirit 
that  giveth  life. 

The  familiar  discourses  which  follow  may 
serve  to  illustrate,  in  part,  the  principles  af- 
firmed in  this  introductory  essay.  They  are 
the  endeavors  of    a  busy  pastor,  who  makes 


42        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE    BOOKS 

no  claim  to  high  scholarshij),  to  show  his 
people  some  o£  the  more  sure  results  of  re- 
cent Biblical  study.  The  books  selected  are 
confessedly  among  the  most  difficult  books 
of  the  Old  Testament,  —  those  in  which  the 
conclusions  of  modern  scholarship  diverge 
most  widely  from  the  traditional  theory. 
I  trust  it  will  appear  that  after  the  results 
of  candid  critical  investigation  have  all  been 
accepted,  we  have  something  left,  even  in 
these  puzzling  books,  of  real  spiritual  value. 
I  will  even  hope  that  this  new  way  of  look- 
ing at  them  may  impart  to  some  of  them  a 
deeper  reality  and  larger  significance  than 
they  ever  had  before. 


II 

JUDGES 

Out  of  the  thirty-nine  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  seven  have  been  selected  for 
study  in  the  familiar  discourses  which  fol- 
low. 

To  two  classes  of  persons  I  trust  that 
these  discourses  will  be  especially  service- 
able. The  first  class  includes  those  who 
reject  some  or  all  of  these  books  as  worth- 
less, finding  them  rather  stumbling-blocks 
than  helps  to  faith,  and  discovering  in  them 
reasons  for  the  rejection  of  the  entire  Bible. 
I  hope  to  show  these  skeptics  that  their  judg- 
ment is  hasty  and  superficial;  that  these 
books,  though  not,  perhaps,  what  they  have 
sometimes  been  represented  to  be,  are,  when 
you  handle  them  intelligently,  of  great  value, 
capable  of  giving  us  instruction  and  inspi- 
ration. 

The  other  class  consists  of  those  who  re- 
gard the  Bible  as  a  book  equally  inspired  in 
all  its  parts,   every  sentence  of  which  was 


44        SEVEN   PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

dictated  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  whole  of 
which  is  therefore  equally  inerrant  and  au- 
thoritative. I  hope  to  make  it  plain  to  these 
persons  that  this  view  of  the  Bible  is  unten- 
able. 

I  shall  be  asked  why  I  indulge  this  hope. 
I  shall  be  told  that  I  ought  to  leave  them  in 
peace  with  the  traditional  theory ;  that  it  is 
no  kindness  to  them  to  disturb  a  belief  which 
gives  them  comfort.  My  answer  is,  that  it 
is  far  better  for  them  to  know  the  truth. 
The  view  which  they  are  entertaining  cannot 
be  held  in  these  days  by  any  fairly  well-in- 
formed man  without  constantly  doing  vio- 
lence to  his  intelligence  and  his  integrity. 
The  errors,  the  contradictions,  the  moral  im- 
perfections which  appear  in  some  of  these 
books,  which  thrust  themselves  before  every 
wakeful  reader,  and  to  which  the  attention 
of  the  whole  world  has  been  sharply  called 
by  modern  investigation,  must  be  met  and 
accounted  for  by  the  advocate  of  Biblical 
infallibility.  His  task  is  to  explain  them 
away.  It  is  a  large  undertaking.  In  prose- 
cuting it,  his  intellectual  integrity  and  his 
moral  honesty  are  likely  to  suffer  a  serious 
strain.  He  is  compelled  to  resort  to  evasions 
and  subterfuges  of  argument  which  are  not 


JUDGES  45 

good  for  the  character  of  any  man.  Often 
he  silences  his  reason  by  throwing  back  upon 
the  Scripture  itself  the  whole  burden  of  the 
absurdity,  and  pleading  that  such  things 
are  inherent  in  a  revelation.  There  is  a 
story  of  a  lad  who  was  reading  the  narra- 
tive, in  the  second  book  of  Samuel,  of  the 
woman  bathing  on  the  housetop.  Never 
having  seen  a  house  without  a  peaked  roof, 
he  was  troubled  by  the  apparent  improba- 
bility, and  so  expressed  himself  to  his  father. 
"  Hush,  my  son  !  "  solemnly  whispered  the 
devout  parent,  "  with  man  it  is  impossible, 
but  with  God  all  things  are  possible."  The 
story  not  inaptly  describes  a  kind  of  intel- 
lectual abjectness  which  men  are  wont  to 
display  in  the  presence  of  the  Bible.  Not 
only,  as  in  this  case,  do  they  make  mysteries 
when  there  are  none,  but  they  are  free  to 
assume  that  not  only  mysteries,  but  mistakes, 
contradictions,  preposterous  absurdities,  are 
possible  with  God ;  that  when  we  find  them 
lying  on  the  face  of  one  of  these  books  of 
Scripture  we  must  accept  them  as  divine 
verities ;  that  the  refusal  to  do  so  dishonors 
God,  because  this  is  God's  book.  Such  a 
practice  is  morally  injurious  in  a  high  de- 
gree.    If  any  man  thinks  he  approves  him- 


46        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

self  to  God  when  he  does  violence  to  his 
reason  and  his  moral  sense,  he  gravely 
misconceives  God's  character.  If  any  man 
thinks  he  is  honoring  God  when  he  insists 
on  attributing  to  Him  the  ignorance  and 
superstition  of  man  which  we  find  in  these 
ancient  writings,  he  needs  to  revise  his  the- 
ology. 

It  is,  therefore,  in  the  definite  expectation 
of  important  moral  gains  to  those  who  take 
part  in  them  that  these  studies  are  under- 
taken. That  some  may  perversely  use  the 
truth  here  brous^ht  to  lisfht  is  not  to  be  de- 
nied ;  no  truth  is  so  high  or  so  precious  that 
depraved  minds  will  not  turn  it  into  a  savor 
of  death  unto  death.  That  risks  are  in- 
curred in  the  telling  of  any  truth  is  a  fact 
which  we  cannot  hide  from  ourselves.  But, 
after  all,  there  can  be  no  worse  moral  evil 
than  insincerity ;  no  more  deadly  peril  in 
handling  the  Bible  than  that  which  is  in- 
curred by  those  who  conceal  the  truth  about 
it ;  no  greater  irreverence  than  that  which 
imputes  to  God  the  blind  judgments  and 
moral  crudities  of  men. 

With  the  sincere  wish  that  we  may  be 
preserved  from  these  perils,  and  not  less 
from  rash  speculations  and  overbold  assump- 


JUDGES  47 

tions,  let  iis  turn  to  the  study  of  these  an- 
cient Scriptures.  The  independent  study  of 
these  seven  books  is  a  perfectly  legitimate 
proceeding,  for  they  are  independent  books. 
There  is,  as  we  have  seen,  no  evidence  that 
any  one  of  the  writers  of  these  thirty-nine 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  knew  or  ima- 
gined, when  he  was  writing  his  book,  that  it 
would  be  included,  with  many  others,  in  a 
collection  to  be  called  the  Bible.  This  col- 
lection was  not  made  by  prophets  nor  in- 
spired men  ;  the  question  what  books  should 
be  taken  in  and  what  left  out  was  settled  by 
men  who  could  lay  no  claim  to  supernatural 
guidance.  I  am  not,  however,  questioning 
the  selection.  Some  of  these  books  are 
worth  more  than  others,  but  there  is  none 
that  we  can  now  afford  to  spare.  Some  of 
those  which  have  been  great  stumbling- 
blocks  to  faith  are  full  of  instruction  for  us 
when  we  rightly  use  them.  The  point  to  be 
observed  now  is,  that  we  have  here  not  a 
continuous  literary  production,  but  a  col- 
lection of  books  ;  "  The  Divine  Library," 
Canon  Kilpatrick  calls  it.  And  it  is,  there- 
fore, legitimate  to  select  from  among  these 
any  which  we  may  desire  for  separate  study. 
First  upon  the  list  of  those  which  we  have 


48        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

thus  selected  is  the  book  of  Judges.  The 
book  has  in  the  Hebrew  Bible  the  same  title, 
"  Shophetim,"  which  is  the  plural  of  the 
word  meaning  judge.  It  jiurports  to  be  a 
history  of  the  Israelitish  people  during  the 
period  which  intervenes  between  the  death 
of  Joshua  and  the  commonwealth  under  Eli 
and  Samuel.  Both  of  the  two  last  named 
were  regarded  as  judges,  but  their  jurisdic- 
tion was  of  a  broader  and  more  permanent 
character  than  that  of  the  personages  of  the 
book. 

The  period  covered  by  these  annals  was 
one  of  great  turbulence  and  insecurity; 
there  was  no  regularly  organized  govern- 
ment ;  the  tribes  dwelt  apart,  and  were  not 
always  friendly.  "  In  those  days  there  was 
no  king  in  Israel ;  every  man  did  that  which 
was  right  in  his  own  eyes."  ^  It  was  an- 
archy, tempered  not  by  a  policeman,  but  by 
a  judge.  The  word  connotes  more  than  the 
function  of  a  judicial  officer ;  these  judges 
were  popular  leaders  and  magistrates.  Thir- 
teen of  them  are  named  ;  the  exploits  of 
seven  of  these,  Othniel,  Ehud,  Barak,  Gid- 
eon, Abimelech,  Jephthah,  and  Samson,  are 
told  at   considerable   length ;    six  of   them 

1  Chap.  xxi.  25. 


JUDGES  49 

are  simply  mentioned,  with  the  number  of 
years  during  which  they  exercised  leader- 
ship. 

The  book  consists  of  three  parts  :  the  in- 
troduction, which  comprises  the  first  chapter 
and  five  verses  of  the  second ;  the  history  of 
the  Judges  proper,  beginning  with  the  sixth 
verse  of  the  second  chapter  and  extending 
through  the  sixteenth  chapter :  and  an  ap- 
pendix relating  two  incidents  of  the  earlier 
history,  which  have  nothing  to  do  with  the 
Judges.  The  manner  in  which  the  materi- 
als of  the  book  are  put  together  is  highly 
interesting  and  instructive.  It  is  evident 
that  it  is  a  compilation  of  documents  of  va- 
rious ages.  The  introduction  is  the  oldest 
and  the  most  valuable  part.  It  relates  the 
history  of  the  occupation  of  Palestine  by 
the  twelve  tribes,  showing  us  how  successive 
incursions  were  made  into  this  territory  by 
the  different  tribes,  some  of  which  were  more 
suQcessful  than  others  in  dispossessing  the 
Canaanites.  A  few  of  the  tribes  drove  out 
the  aborigines  ;  some  of  them  were  not  able 
to  expel  the  natives,  and  settled  among  them. 
The  Jebusites,  for  example,  held  the  for- 
tress of  Jerusalem,  and  it  was  never  per- 
manently in  possession  of  the   children  of 


50        SEVEX  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

Israel  until  the  days  of  David.  Others  of 
the  tribes,  partly  for  economic  reasons,  suf- 
fered the  Canaanites  to  remain,  and  when 
the  conquerors  were  waxen  strong  they  made 
slaves  of  the  conquered.  This  narrative  of 
the  occupation  of  Canaan  by  the  twelve 
tribes,  as  it  stands  here  at  the  beginning  of 
the  book  of  Judges,  is  apparently  a  truth- 
ful record  ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  compare 
it  with  statements  concerning  the  occupa- 
tion which  occur  in  the  book  of  Joshua. 
Several  portions  of  this  first  chapter  are 
found,  word  for  word,  interspersed  through 
the  book  of  Joshua.  Let  me  read  you,  for 
example,  the  account  of  the  taking  of  Debir, 
which  is  found  in  the  first  chapter. 

"And  from  thence  he  went  against  the 
inhabitants  of  Debir.  (Now  the  name  of 
Debir  beforetime  was  Kiriath-sepher.)  And 
Caleb  said,  He  that  smiteth  Kiriath-sepher, 
and  taketh  it,  to  him  will  I  give  Achsah  my 
daughter  to  wife.  And  Othniel  the  son  of 
Kenaz,  Caleb's  younger  brother,  took  it ; 
and  he  gave  him  Achsah  his  daughter  to 
wife.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  she  came 
unto  him,  that  she  moved  him  to  ask  of  her 
father  a  field:  and  she  lighted  down  from 
off  her  ass ;  and  Caleb  said  unto  her.  What 


JUDGES  51 

wouldest  tliou  ?  And  she  said  unto  him, 
Give  me  a  present ;  for  that  thou  hast  set 
me  in  the  kind  of  the  South,  give  me  also 
springs  of  water.  And  Caleb  gave  her  the 
upper  springs  and  the  nether  sjirings."  If 
now  you  turn  over  to  Joshua  xv.  15-19,  you 
read  this  same  story,  word  for  word,  just  as 
it  is  here  narrated.  It  is,  of  course,  incred- 
ible that  two  independent  writers  should 
have  told  the  story  in  exactly  the  same 
words  :  one  must  have  borrowed  from  the 
other,  or  else,  which  is  much  more  credible, 
both  borrowed  from  an  older  document. 
What  makes  this  more  probable  is  that  sev- 
eral portions  of  the  first  part  of  Judges  are 
thus,  as  I  have  said,  incorporated  into  the 
narrative  in  Joshua.  The  writers  of  both 
Joshua  and  Judges  had  access  to  the  same 
old  document.  The  writer  of  Joshua  made 
extracts  from  it,  and  inserted  them  in  his 
narrative  here  and  there  ;  the  writer  of  the 
Judges  brought  his  quotations  together  here 
in  the  introduction  to  his  book.^ 

1  "  These  notices  display  a  strong  similarity  of  style, 
and  in  some  cases  even  verbal  identity  with  a  series  of 
passages  somewhat  loosely  attached  to  the  context,  pre- 
served in  the  older  strata  of  the  book  of  Joshua.  Thus 
Judg.  i.  21  (the  Benjamites'  failure  to  conquer  Jerusalem) 
agrees  almost  precisely  with  Josh.  xv.  63,  the  only  mate- 


52        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

But  there  is  a  discrepancy  here  which  the 
wit  of  man  cannot  reconcile  with  the  theory 
of  an  infallible  record.  The  writer  of  the 
Judoes  tells  us  that  these  incidents  of  the 
occupation  occurred  after  the  death  of 
Joshua.  The  writer  of  the  book  of  Joshua 
puts  them  all  before  the  death  of  Joshua. 
There  is  nothing  to  say  about  this,  except 
that  one  of  these  writers  must  be  mistaken. 
This  incident  about  Caleb  and  his  daughter, 
which  I  have  read  to  you,  must  have  taken 
place  either  before  or  after  the  death  of 
Joshua.     If  the  writer  of  Joshua,  who  puts 

rial  difference  being  that  the  failure  is  there  laid  to  the 
charge,  not  of  Benjamin,  but  of  Judah  ;  i.  20,  and  10-15, 
agrees  in  the  main  with  Josh.  xv.  14-19 ;  i.  27,  28  with 
Josh.  xvii.  12,  13  ;  i.  29  with  Josh.  xvi.  10.  Most  of  the 
verbal  differences  are  due  simply  to  the  different  rela- 
tions which  the  fragments  hold,  in  the  two  books,  to  the 
contiguous  narrative.  Josh.  xvii.  14-18  (complaint  of 
the  House  of  Joseph,  and  xix.  47  Dan)  are  very  similar 
in  representation  (implying  the  separate  action  taken  by 
individual  tribes)  and  in  phraseology.  It  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  both  Judg.  i.  and  these  notices  in  Joshua 
are  excerpts  from  what  was  once  a  detailed  survey  of 
the  conquest  of  Canaan  :  of  these  excerpts  some  have 
been  filled  in  with  the  narrative  of  Joshua  ;  others  have 
been  combined  in  Judg.  i.  so  as  to  form,  with  the  addi- 
tion of  the  opening  words,  After  the  death  of  Joshua,  an 
introduction  to  the  period  of  the  Judges."  —  Driver's 
Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  pp.  153,  154. 


JUDGES  53 

it  before  the  death  of  Joshua,  is  right,  the 
author  of  Judges,  who  puts  it  after  his  death, 
must  be  wroug. 

What  difference  does  it  make,  you  want 
to  know,  which  is  right  ?  It  makes  not  a 
particle  of  difference  to  me,  I  answer,  be- 
cause I  recognize  the  fact  that  these  sacred 
writings  are  not  free  from  error  ;  and  be- 
cause their  value  to  me  is  not  lessened  in 
the  slightest  degree  by  the  discovery  of  such 
discrepancies.  This  incident  is  a  graphic 
and  realistic  little  picture  of  social  man- 
ners in  that  early  time  ;  as  such  it  is  inter- 
esting and  valuable ;  the  precise  date  at 
which  it  occurred  is  of  no  consequence. 
But  these  conflicting  passages,  and  there  are 
scores  of  such,  do  make  it  absurd  to  speak 
of  the  Bible  as  an  infallible  book.  That  is 
a  fact  which  we  must  look  squarely  in  the 
face.  Not  until  we  are  ready  to  deal  hon- 
estly with  the  Bible  in  all  these  matters  are 
we  prepared  to  receive  the  instruction  it  has 
to  give  us. 

The  composite  character  of  the  book  is 
also  made  clear  even  to  the  ordinary  reader 
by  a  little  observation. 

In  the  first  chapter,  and  the  first  five 
verses  of  the  second,  we  have  a  narrative  of 


54        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

what  happened  after  the  death  of  Joshua. 
In  the  sixth  verse  of  the  second  chapter 
we  begin  to  read  as  follows :  *'  Now  when 
Joshua  had  sent  the  people  away,  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  went  every  man  unto  his 
inheritance  to  possess  the  land.  And  the 
people  served  the  Lord  all  the  days  of 
Joshua,  and  all  the  days  of  the  elders  that 
outlived  Joshua,  who  had  seen  all  the  great 
work  of  the  Lord,  that  he  had  wrought  for 
Israel.  And  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun,  the 
servant  of  the  Lord,  died,  being  an  hundred 
and  ten  years  old.  And  they  buried  him  in 
the  border  of  his  inheritance  in  Timnath- 
heres,  in  the  hill  country  of  Ej^hraim,  on 
the  north  of  the  mountain  of  Gaash." 

If  this  were  a  consecutive  and  orderly 
narrative,  written  by  one  hand,  the  fact  of 
the  death  would  probably  be  stated  before 
the  events  that  happened  subsequently  to 
the  death ;  but  if  we  have  here  ancient 
documents  pieced  together  without  much 
care  for  literary  consistency,  the  present 
state  of  the  composition  is  easily  understood. 
It  is  interesting  also  to  note  that  the  words 
which  I  have  just  read  are  found  in  the 
last  chapter  of  the  book  of  Joshua.  Here, 
again,  one  writer  must  have  borrowed  from 


JUDGES  55 

the  other,  or  else  both  borrowed  from  an 
older  narrative. 

The  stories  of  the  greater  Judges,  which 
form  the  body  of  the  book,  are  told  with  an 
evident  religious  motive.  The  writer  wants 
his  history  to  enforce  a  religious  lesson  ;  he 
evidently  believes  that  all  history  is  profit- 
able as  illustrating  the  moral  government 
of  Jehovah.  All  these  narratives  begin  by 
saying  that  the  children  of  Israel  did  evil 
in  the  sight  of  Jehovah,  and  that  He  deliv- 
ered them  over  to  the  oppression  of  this 
or  that  oppressor ;  after  they  had  suffered 
awhile  under  this  oppression  they  cried  unto 
the  Lord,  and  He  raised  up  for  them  this  or 
that  Judge,  who  subdued  their  oppressors ; 
then  the  land  had  rest  for  a  short  period, 
after  which  the  people  relapsed  into  dis- 
obedience, and  were  again  delivered  over  to 
another  oppressor.  In  all  these  stories,  says 
Dr.  Driver,  "  we  have  the  same  succession 
of  apostasy,  subjugation,  the  cry  for  help, 
deliverance,  described  often  in  the  same, 
always  in  similar  phraseology."  ^ 

The  apostasy  seems  to  have  consisted  al- 
ways in  forsaking  the  worship  of  Jehovah, 
and  following  after  Baal,  Astarte,  or  the 
1  Op.  cit.  p.  155. 


56        SEVEN  PUZZLING  BIBLE  BOOKS 

other  gods  of  the  neighboring  nations. 
The  writer's  point  of  view  is  that  Jehovah 
is  the  God  of  Israel,  that  fidelity  to  Him  is 
the  highest  duty,  that  this  must  bring  the 
people  peace  and  prosperity,  and  that  the 
disasters  and  oppressions  under  which  from 
time  to  time  they  have  suffered  have  been 
the  direct  consequence  of  their  departure 
from  Him  and  their  worship  of  strange  gods. 
We  find  that  this  worship  of  Jehovah  is 
not,  however,  the  pure  spiritual  worship 
taught  by  the  prophets  ;  and  it  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  Judges,  who  are  here 
described  and  praised,  —  or  the  author  who 
tells  their  story,  —  had  ever  seen  even  the 
decalogue,  in  the  form  in  which  we  have 
it  now.  For  although  the  worship  of  Je- 
hovah is  insisted  upon  as  binding  upon  the 
people  of  Israel,  it  is  assumed  that  He  is 
the  national  God,  that  other  nations  have 
gods  of  their  own,  whom  they  are  bound 
to  worship,  and  that  the  power  of  Jehovah 
is  by  no  means  universal  and  unlimited. 
Thus  we  read  in  the  first  chapter  (v.  19) 
that  "Jehovah  was  with  Judah,  and  he 
drave  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  hill  coun- 
try ;  but  he  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabit- 
ants of  the  valley,  because  they  had  chariots 


JUDGES  57 

of  iron."  The  naivete  of  this  primitive 
conception  is  very  striking.  So,  too,  when 
Jephthah  argues  with  the  king  of  the 
Ammonites  against  the  rightfulness  of  the 
invasion  of  the  territory  of  Israel,  he  says : 
"  Wilt  thou  not  possess  that  which  Che- 
mosh  thy  god  giveth  thee  to  possess  ?  So 
whomsoever  Jehovah  our  God  hath  dispos- 
sessed before  us,  them  will  we  possess." 
The  argument  of  Jephthah,  as  Professor 
Moore  expresses  it,  is  that  "  the  conquests 
of  a  people  are  the  conquests  of  its  god, 
who  bestows  upon  them  the  territory  of  the 
conquered ;  they  hold  it  by  a  divine  right 
which  should  be  respected  by  others  who 
hold  their  own  territories  by  the  like  title. 
Chemosh  is  the  national  god  of  Moab,  and 
Moab  is  the  people  of  Chemosh,  just  as 
Yahveh  is  the  god  of  Israel  and  Israel  the 
people  of  Yahveh.  .  .  .  The  reality  and 
power  of  the  national  god  of  Moab  were 
no  more  doubted  by  the  old  Israelites  than 
those  of  Yahveh  himself."  ^ 

And  not  only  is  the  religion  of  this  book 
thus  purely  ethnic,  the  worship  of  images 
is  a  more  or  less  regular  feature  of  it. 
Thus  Gideon,  after  his  great  victory  over 

1  Commentary  on  the  Judges^  p.  294. 


58        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

tlie  Midianites,  solicits  from  each  of  the 
warriors  of  his  band  the  coverings  which 
they  had  taken  from  the  bodies  of  the  slain, 
and  of  these  he  constructs  an  ephod^  which 
is  here,  clearly,  an  image,  probably  an  image 
which  is  intended  to  represent  Jehovah. 
He  sets  it  up  in  his  own  city  of  Ophrah, 
and  the  people  gather  there  to  worship  it. 
A  single  sentence  here  expresses  disapproval 
of  this  image  worship,  but  there  is  reason  to 
believe  that  this  comment  was  added  by  a 
later  hand.  In  the  story  of  Micah,  in  the 
seventeenth  chapter,  no  such  disapprobation 
is  suggested.  That  story  of  Micah  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  in  the  book.  Micah  was 
a  man  of  Mount  Ephraim  who  steals  from 
his  mother  a  large  amount  of  silver,  and 
whose  conscience  troubles  him,  so  that  he 
restores  it.  His  mother,  in  gratitude  for 
the  recovery  of  her  money,  takes  a  portion 
of  the  silver  and  makes  an  idol  of  it,  which 
she  gives  to  her  son,  who  keeps  it  in  his 
house.  An  ephod  and  a  teraphim  were  the 
foundation  of  their  religious  establishment, 
—  and  these  were  small  household  images, 
probably  images  of  Jehovah,  —  intended,  as 
the  narrative  shows,  to  be  used  as  oracles. 
Having  erected  a  shrine,   Micah  needed  a 


JUDGES  59 

priest,  and  he  took  a  young  man  of  the 
neighborhood  (perhaps  his  own  son)  and 
consecrated  him  for  that  service.  But  pre- 
sently there  came  along  a  wandering  Le- 
vite,  a  member  of  the  priestly  tribe.  "  And 
Micah  said  unto  him,  Whence  comest  thou  ? 
And  he  said  unto  him,  I  am  a  Levite  of 
Bethlehem-judah,  and  I  go  to  sojourn  where 
I  may  find  a  place.  And  Micah  said  unto 
him.  Dwell  with  me  and  be  unto  me  a  fa- 
ther and  a  priest,  and  I  will  give  thee  ten 
pieces  of  silver  by  the  year  and  a  suit  of 
apparel  and  thy  victuals.  And  the  Levite 
was  content  to  dwell  with  the  man,  and  the 
young  man  was  unto  him  as  one  of  his  own 
sons.  Then  said  Micah,  Now  know  I  that 
the  Lord  will  do  me  good,  seeing  that  I  have 
a  Levite  for  my  priest."  He  has  a  shrine 
with  the  necessary  images,  and  a  priest  to 
minister  before  it ;  now  he  is  sure  of  the 
favor  of  Jehovah. 

But  shortly  a  scouting  party  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Dan  who  are  prospecting  for  terri- 
tory which  their  tribe  may  occupy,  passing 
this  way,  find  this  shrine  and  this  oracle, 
and  consult  it  as  to  the  direction  which 
they  shall  take.  Following  the  counsel  of 
the  oracle,  they  travel  northward  and  dis- 


60        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

cover  an  eligible  site;  then  they  return, 
and  are  conducting  their  tribe  to  its  new 
seat  among  the  northern  hills.  But  as  they 
rej^ass  the  house  of  Micah  the  bright 
thought  strikes  them  that  they  might  as 
well  capture  these  idols  of  Micah,  whose 
guidance  has  been  so  profitable  to  them  ; 
and  they  make  a  raid  upon  tlie  shrine,  and 
seize  the  images  and  are  making  off  with 
them.  "  What  do  ye  ? "  cries  the  hired 
priest.  "  And  they  said  unto  bim,  Hold 
thy  peace,  lay  thy  hand  upon  thy  mouth 
and  go  with  us,  and  be  to  us  a  father  and  a 
priest ;  is  it  better  for  thee  to  be  priest 
unto  the  house  of  one  man,  or  to  be  priest 
unto  a  tribe  and  a  family  in  Israel  ?  And 
the  priest's  heart  was  glad,  and  he  took  the 
ephod  and  the  teraphim  and  the  graven 
image  and  went  in  the  midst  of  the  people." 
After  a  little,  Micah  and  his  neighbors  set 
out  in  pursuit,  but  the  Danites  laugh  at 
him  and  he  returns  bereft  of  his  gods,  with 
a  heavy  heart,  to  his  home.  The  Danites 
with  their  captured  images  and  their  con- 
script priest  go  on  their  way  rejoicing  ;  and 
after  they  have  put  to  the  sword  the  peoj^le 
of  the  territory  which  they  have  chosen,  and 
have   burnt   their   city,  they   set   up   their 


JUDGES  CI 

graven  image  and  install  their  priest,  and 
the  worship  tlms  inaugurated  continues 
through  many  generations.  And  now  it 
transpires  that  the  young  Levite,  the  hero 
of  this  remarkable  adventure  and  the  founder 
of  this  religious  institution,  is  none  other 
than  the  grandson  of  Moses. 

In  all  this  narrative  there  is  no  hint  of 
any  disapproval  of  their  conduct ;  the  fabri- 
cation of  these  graven  images,  their  use  as 
oracles,  the  erection  of  this  shrine,  are  treated 
as  matters  wholly  legitimate,  and  the  sharp 
practice  of  the  Danites  in  ravishing  the 
shrine  and  carrying  off  the  household  gods 
of  Micah  is  told  without  a  syllable  of  disap- 
proval. It  is  evident  that  the  writer  sees 
nothing  in  it  which  seriously  conflicts  with 
his  notions  of  religion  and  morality. 

I  cannot  examine,  so  fully  as  I  wish  I 
might,  the  narratives  of  this  remarkable 
book.  The  story  of  Jephthah  and  his  daugh- 
ter is  a  most  striking  revelation  of  the 
moral  and  religious  condition  of  these  peo- 
ple. Jephthah  vowed,  on  the  eve  of  a  great 
battle,  that  if  victory  should  be  granted 
him  he  would  make  a  burnt  offering  of  the 
first  living:  thins:  that  came  forth  from  his 
door  to  meet  him  on  his  return ;  it  was  his 


62        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

daughter  wlio  met  him,  —  and  although  it 
filled  him  with  dismay,  he  kept  his  vow. 
"  I  have  opened  my  mouth  unto  the  Lord,'* 
he  said,  "  and  I  cannot  go  back,"  "  and  he 
did  with  her  according  to  the  vow  which  he 
had  vowed."  The  commentators  have  made 
desperate  attempts  to  explain  away  this  ter- 
rible story,  but  it  is  useless.  The  author 
means  that  we  shall  understand  that  Jeph- 
thah  offered  his  daughter  to  Jehovah,  as  a 
burnt  offering,  in  fulfillment  of  his  vow. 
"  One  wishes,"  says  Dr.  Martin  Luther  in 
his  Commentary,  "that  he  had  not  sacri- 
ficed her,  but  the  text  stands  there  plain."  ^ 
And  the  author  of  the  book  sees  nothing  to 
censure  in  his  conduct,  and  evidently  be- 
lieves that  Jehovah  was  pleased  with  the 
fulfillment  of  the  vow. 

If  you  have  read  the  book  through  care- 
fully, you  do  not  need  that  I  should  re- 
hearse the  stories  of  Othniel  and  Ehud,  and 
Deborah,  and  Gideon,  and  Samson.  These 
are  wonderful  stories  ;  they  possess  a  peren- 
nial interest  for  readers  of  all  generations ; 
they  have  their  uses,  of  which  we  shall  pre- 
sently speak ;  it  is  only  necessary  to  remem- 

1  ' '  Man  -will  er  habe  sie  niclit  geopf ert,  aber  der  Text 
steht  Klar  da." 


JUDGES  Q>3 

ber  that  they  do  not  uniformly  represent  to 
us  the  mind  of  Christ ;  that  the  thoughts  of 
the  writers  and  the  compilers  of  these  stories 
are  not  always  such  thoughts  as  we  ought  to 
think  about  God  and  religion,  about  man 
and  his  duties. 

What,  then,  is  the  real  value  of  the  book? 

I  answer,  first,  that  it  is  a  picture  of  a 
dark  age,  of  the  darkest  age,  probably,  of 
Hebrew  history.  It  brings  before  us  in  a 
series  of  realistic  sketches  the  conditions  of 
life  and  thought  in  a  time  when  the  know- 
ledge of  God  was  dim,  and  the  ethical  ideas 
of  men  were  crude.  The  Hebrews  are  the 
people  to  whom,  in  later  ages,  the  highest 
and  purest  conceptions  of  religion  and  of 
righteousness  were  given,  but  these  concep- 
tions were  the  result  of  a  long  training  and 
a  severe  discipline,  and  this  book  of  Judges 
shows  us  what  the  Hebrews  were  in  the 
beginning,  out  of  what  kind  of  stuff  the 
pro2)hets  and  lawgivers  and  psalmists  of 
Israel  were  developed.  Perhaps  you  saw 
at  the  Columbian  Exposition  the  Bell  tele- 
phone, in  all  the  stages  of  its  development, 
from  the  first  crude  apparatus  to  the  per- 
fected instrument.  It  is  very  instructive 
to   observe   such   an   evolution.      And   the 


64        SEVEX  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

Bible  gives  us  a  chance  to  study  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  religious  thought  of  one  race,  — 
the  one  race  whose  religious  thought  is  most 
significant  and  precious.  These  folk-stories 
of  the  Judges  are,  for  this  purpose,  of  un- 
speakable value.  The  people  of  that  rude 
time  are  permitted  to  bring  before  us,  in 
their  own  way,  their  ideas  about  God  and 
their  conceptions  of  human  conduct.  Upon 
these  pages,  with  the  utmost  simplicity  and 
sincerity,  they  tell  us  their  thought,  they 
live  out  their  life  ;  we  see  them  working, 
worshiping,  scheming,  fighting,  journeying, 
sojourning ;  nothing  is  hidden  from  us ; 
their  crudest  ideas,  their  most  heathenish 
beliefs  are  laid  bare  to  our  view,  —  and 
this  not  by  some  one  who  stands  outside, 
and  moralizes  about  it  from  a  higher  plane, 
but  by  themselves,  for  the  stories,  though 
brought  together  by  a  later  compiler,  are, 
for  substance,  clearly  the  handiwork  of  men 
who  lived  when  such  conceptions  were  cur- 
rent. 

Such,  then,  were  the  raw  materials  of  hu- 
manity, out  of  which  were  to  be  constructed 
the  sublimities  and  glories  of  the  Hebrew 
faith.  Men  like  Gideon  and  Othniel  and 
Barak  and  Jephthah  and  Samson,  with  their 


JUDGES  C5 

crude  notions  about  Jehovah,  with  their  idol- 
atries and  indecencies  and  treacheries  and 
barbarities,  were  to  become,  under  the  edu- 
cation of  the  Spirit,  such  chivalrous  heroes 
as  David,  such  noblemen  as  Hezekiah,  such 
clear-si ohted  moralists  as  the  authors  of  the 
Proverbs,  such  seers  as  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
and  Hosea  and  grand  old  Amos,  such  sing- 
ers as  those  who  wrote  the  Psalms,  such 
spiritual  philosophers  as  the  author  of  the 
book  of  Job.  A  most  precious  product  of 
divine  inspiration  is  this  spiritual  faith  of 
Israel ;  here,  in  the  Judges,  we  see  the  hole 
of  the  pit  out  of  which  it  was  digged. 

There  are  historical  values,  here,  also, 
which  must  not  be  overlooked.  Doubtless 
we  get  in  the  story  of  Deborah  and  Barak,  in 
the  story  of  Gideon,  in  the  story  of  Jeph- 
thah,  some  substantial  additions  to  our  his- 
torical knowledge  respecting  the  struggles 
of  Israel  with  the  neighboring  powers. 

And,  more  than  this,  there  is  stimulus  and 
inspiration  for  virtue  in  the  conduct  of  these 
heroes  and  heroines  of  Israel.  We  do  not 
need  to  copy  their  barbarities  :  Jesus  Christ 
has  taught  us  how  to  discriminate  between 
the  good  and  the  evil  in  their  conduct ;  but 
we  can  never  read  this  record  without  hav- 


(j(j        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

iiig  our  courage  strengthened  and  our  patri- 
otism quickened.  Gideon's  dauntless  deeds, 
Deborah's  flaming  speech,  Samson's  sublime 
self-sacrifice,  —  the  unhesitating  self-abnega- 
tion of  the  daughter  of  Jephthah,  all  kindle 
in  our  hearts  the  fire  of  noble  endeavor. 

And  higher  than  all  is  the  lesson  of  the 
whole  book,  that  tlie  one  supreme  thing  is 
to  be  faithful  to  your  highest  convictions. 
All  these  stories  make  this  clear ;  it  is  the 
one  truth  that  they  all  emphasize.  Fidelity 
to  Jehovah  brought  welfare  and  liberty  and 
peace  to  Israel ;  disobedience  to  Him  brought 
bondage  and  misery.  Now  Jehovah  and  his 
law  was  to  these  Israelites  the  highest  truth 
they  knew.  It  was  a  very  crude  notion  that 
they  had  about  Him ;  but  He  represented 
to  them  the  best  life  of  which  they  could 
conceive.  They  knew  that  when  they  for- 
sook Him  and  went  after  Baal  and  Astarte 
with  their  licentious  rites,  they  were  prefer- 
ring the  lower  to  the  higher.  For  them,  as 
for  us,  there  was  a  law  in  the  members 
warring  against  the  law  in  the  mind,  and 
when  they  dethroned  the  angel  and  enthroned 
the  beast  they  knew  that  they  were  wrong. 
This  primary  conviction  the  book  every- 
where confirms  ;  it  bears  witness  that  when 


JUDGES  67 

men  follow  the  highest  that  they  know,  it  is 
well  with  them  ;  and  that  when  they  for- 
sake the  highest  that  they  know  and  go  after 
other  gods  it  is  ill  with  them.  And  this, 
I  say,  is  the  supreme  lesson  of  life.  It  is 
just  as  true  for  us  as  it  was  for  those  half- 
savage  Israelites.  There  are  a  good  many  of 
us,  I  fear,  who  are  doing  just  what  they  did  : 
we  are  false  to  our  ideals  ;  we  are  not  fol- 
lowing the  highest  truth  we  know ;  we  are 
seeking  gains,  prizes,  pleasures  that  do  not 
ennoble,  but  rather  degrade  us  ;  these  are 
our  idols,  for  an  idol  is  anything  to  which 
a  man  turns  when  he  forsakes  his  ideals ; 
and  by  as  much  as  our  ideals  are  higher  and 
purer  than  those  of  the  old  Israelites,  by  so 
much  is  our  condemnation  greater  than 
theirs,  our  bondage  harder  to  break,  our 
loss  more  nearly  irreparable.  The  book  of 
Judges  teaches  us  this  lesson  :  that  fidelity 
to  the  highest  truth  you  know  is  the  straight 
path  to  life.  If  we  learn  this  lesson  out  of 
this  book  we  shall  have  reason  to  thank 
God  that  He  has  hidden  for  us  in  one  of  the 
puzzling  books  of  the  Bible  a  pearl  of  great 
price. 


Ill 

ESTHER 

In  our  English  Bibles  the  book  of  Esther 
follows  the  historical  books,  Kings,  Chroni- 
cles, Ezra,  and  Nehemiah ;  but  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  Hebrew  Bibles  is  different. 
The  three  divisions  of  the  Hebrew  Bible 
contain  the  Law,  the  Prophets,  and  the 
Ketubim  or  Writings  ;  and  this  order  re- 
presents the  Jewish  idea  of  their  comparative 
value.  The  first  division,  the  Law,  includes 
the  first  five  books  of  the  Bible,  and  is  to 
the  Jew  the  most  precious  portion  of  the 
book.  The  second  division,  the  Prophets, 
includes  the  books  of  Joshua,  the  Judges, 
Samuel,  and  Kings,  as  well  as  those  which  we 
call  the  prophetical  books,  Daniel  only  ex- 
cepted ;  and  this  division  is  regarded  by  them 
as  second  in  value  to  the  Law.  The  Ketu- 
bim or  Writings  includes  the  remaining 
books  of  the  Bible.  Among  these  we  find 
The  Psalms,  The  Proverbs,  Job,  The  Song  of 
Songs,  Kuth,  The  Lamentations,  Ecclesiastes, 


ESTHER  69 

Esther,  Daniel,  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and  the 
Chronicles.  This  third  division  was  consid- 
ered by  the  Jews  to  be  the  least  valuable  of 
their  Scriptures,  though  they  placed  a  high 
estimate  on  some  of  these  books,  as  we  shall 
see.  Most  of  these  are  undoubtedly  of  a  late 
date  ;  and  the  later  writings  were  not  so 
highly  prized  as  the  earlier  ones.  It  will  be 
observed  that  five  of  the  seven  Old  Testa- 
ment books  which  we  have  chosen  to  study 
are  found  in  this  less  esteemed  division  of 
the  Jewish  Bible.  It  would  seem,  there- 
fore, that  some  of  the  difficulties  which  we 
find  in  them  may  have  occurred  to  the  Jews 
themselves.  Yet  their  judgment  of  the 
worth  of  these  Scriptures  cannot  be  given 
much  weight  in  our  decision  concerning 
them ;  the  Rabbinical  notions  of  what  is 
excellent  in  Scripture  do  not  always  evince 
a  clear  spiritual  insight. 

Respecting  the  books  contained  in  the 
first  and  second  divisions  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible,  there  has  been,  so  far  as  I  know,  no 
controversy  among  the  Jews  themselves. 
But  the  contents  of  this  last  division  have 
been  somewhat  disputed.  About  Ecclesi- 
astes.  The  Song  of  Songs,  The  Proverbs,  and 
Esther,  there  were   differences   of   opinion 


70        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

among  the  doctors  of  the  law.  There  were 
those  who  contended  that  this  book  of  Esther 
shoukl  not  be  included  among  the  sacred 
writings  because  of  its  total  lack  of  religious- 
ness. "  The  book  of  Esther,"  says  Kyle, 
"  the  composition  of  which  may  very  probably 
be  assigned  to  the  third  century  B.  c,  became 
in  later  days  one  of  the  most  popular  writ- 
ings of  the  Ketubim.  But  its  admission 
to  the  Canon  was  either  so  long  delayed  or 
was  afterwards,  for  some  reason,  regarded 
with  such  disfavor  that  in  some  quarters, 
among  the  Jews  of  the  first  century  a.  d., 
as  we  shall  see  later  on,  it  was  omitted  alto- 
gether from  the  list  of  sacred  books." 

Professor  Ryle  quotes  from  the  Talmudic 
literature  several  discussions  about  Esther. 
In  one  of  them  the  book,  Esther,  is  person- 
ified, and  represented  as  petitioning  for  ad- 
mission to  the  Canon,  and  the  reply  of  "  the 
Wise  "  is  interpreted  as  meaning  that  it  be- 
longs in  neither  of  the  three  classes  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  that  a  fourth  class  cannot  be  made 
to  receive  it.  Rabbi  Jehudi  is  reported  as 
deciding  that  "  the  book  of  Esther  defileth 
not  the  hands  "  —  is  not  inspired.  Other 
rabbins  give  a  contrary  opinion,  furnishing 
very  dubious  and  fantastic   reasons  for  it. 


ESTHER  71 

"  Such  sayings  imi)ly,"  says  Professor  Kyle, 
"  that  there  had  been  some  hesitation  in  ac- 
cepting the  canonicity  of  the  book.^  But  the 
difficulties  that  had  been  felt  vanished  before 
the  application  of  these  strange  methods  of 
interpretation."  ^ 

This  protest  was  not  silenced  until  the 
first  century  of  our  era.  While  our  Lord 
was  teaching  in  eTerusalem,  the  right  of  Eccle- 
siastes  and  Esther  to  be  regarded  as  Holy 
Scriptures  must,  therefore,  have  been  still 
discussed  by  some  learned  Jews.^     Not  only 

1  "  Down  into  the  second  century  of  our  era  the  canon- 
ical authority  of  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Canticles,  and 
Esther  was  warmly  debated  by  Jewish  scholars."  — 
Wildeboer's  Origin  of  Canon  of  Old  Testament,  p.  72. 

2  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  2d  ed.,  pp.  149,  210-212. 
2  Some  of  the  scholars  think  that  the  discussions  of 

the  Rabbis  respecting  the  canonicity  of  Esther,  which  we 
find  reported  in  some  of  tlie  Talmudical  books,  were  only 
exercises  in  dialectic,  objections  being  raised  for  the 
sake  of  answering  them.  The  fact,  however,  remains 
that  it  was  precisely  those  books  whose  title  to  a  place 
among  the  Scriptures  is  most  questionable  upon  which 
they  exercised  their  dialectic.  I  do  not  know  that  any 
such  debates  are  reported  about  Isaiah  or  Jeremiah  or 
Amos  or  Micah.  It  would  seem  that  there  must  have 
been  some  doubt  in  tlieir  minds  concerning  the  moral  and 
religious  character  of  this  book.  On  this  whole  subject 
see  the  learned  and  thorougli  discussion  of  Dr.  G.  Wilde- 
boer,  in  The  Origin  of  the  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament, 
where   the   author  makes  it  clear  that  the  discussions 


72        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

was  this  true,  but  quite  a  number  of  the 
books  which  are  now  excluded  from  our 
Protestant  Bibles,  the  books  of  the  Apocry- 
pha, were  undoubtedly  included  in  that  Greek 
translation  of  the  Old  Testament  which  seems 
to  have  been  used  by  Jesus  and  his  disciples, 
and  from  which  most  of  their  quotations 
were  undoubtedly  made. 

It  became  necessary,  therefore,  for  the 
Christians,  when  they  began  to  use  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures,  to  determine  for  them- 
selves how  many  of  these  Old  Testament 
books  were  sacred  writings.  Should  they  re- 
ject Esther  and  Ecclesiastes  and  Solomon's 
Song  ?  Should  they  take  in  the  Maccabees 
and  Judith  and  Esdras  and  the  Wisdom  of 
Solomon  ?  It  took  them  a  long  time  to 
make  up  their  minds.  Athanasius  counted 
Esther  among  the  apocryphal  books  ;  Am- 
philochius  of  Iconium  says  that  some  think 
tliat  Esther  should  be  regarded  as  belong- 
ing to  the  Holy  Scripture  ;  Augustine  lets 
into  his  collection  some  of  the  apocryphal 
books,  but  puts  out  Esther ;  Gregory  of 
Nazianzen  omits  it  from  his  catalogue. 

of  the  Talmud  are  not,  as  Strack  maintains,  mere  critical 
fencing,  but  represent  serious  doubts  as  to  the  right  of 
the  book  to  its  place  among  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 


ESTHER  73 

In  speaking  of  the  objections  to  Old  Tes- 
tament books  which  caused  some  of  the  Fa- 
thers to  demand  their  withdrawal  from  the 
Canon,  Professor  Ryle  says  :  "  Opposition  to 
the  book  of  Esther  appears  to  have  taken 
this  open  form.  Its  withdrawal  may,  of 
course,  have  only  expressed  a  local  preju- 
dice due  to  the  teaching  of  some  influential 
Rabbi.  But  the  fact  of  the  book  having 
been  actually  excluded  from  a  Jewish  list  of 
Canonical  Scripture  merits  attention.  For, 
although  we  learn  of  it  from  a  Christian 
source,  the  position  of  the  book  of  Esther 
in  certain  other  Christian  lists  which  profess 
to  give  the  contents  of  the  Hebrew  Canon 
indicates  the  suspicion  with  which  it  was 
apt  to  be  regarded.  Melito,  the  Bishop  of 
Sardis  (circ.  170  A.  D.),  sent  to  a  friend  a 
list  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  which 
he  professed  to  have  obtained  from  accurate 
inquiry,  while  traveling  in  the  East,  in  Syria. 
Its  contents  agree  with  those  of  the  Hebrew 
Canon,  save  in  the  omission  of  Esther."  ^ 

Professor  Ryle  proceeds  to  discuss  the 
question  whether  this  omission  was  acciden- 
tal or  intentional,  and  comes  to  the  con- 
clusion that  it  was  probably  intentional 
1  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament,  p.  203. 


74        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

"  For,  "  lie  says,  "  the  same  unfavorable  opin- 
ion which  the  omission  would  denote  is  not 
only  expressed  in  the  Rabbinical  discussions 
mentioned  in  the  previous  chapter,  but  is 
also  implied  in  the  position  allotted  to  the 
book  in  other  Christian  writings  which  claim 
to  reproduce  the  contents  of  the  Hebrew 
Canon."  And  he  readily  concedes  that  to 
Christian  readers  of  those  days  "  the  char- 
acter of  the  book  may  very  naturally  have 
given  rise  to  difficulties.  Its  spirit  and 
teaching  seemed  to  have  little  in  common 
with  the  New  Testament."  ^ 

The  learned  and  judicious  Professor  San- 
day,  after  mentioning  the  long  dissent  of 
the  Christian  Fathers  to  the  canonicity  of 
Esther,  adds :  "  There  was  certainly  room 
for  such  objection.  The  book  of  Esther 
derives  no  sanction  from  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  has  often  been  pointed  out  that  it 
does  not  even  mention  the  name  of  God ; 
and  it  adds  nothing  to  the  sum  of  revela- 
tion. The  book,  as  we  have  seen,  after  a 
time  secured  its  place  in  the  Jewish  Canon 
and  through  the  Jewish  passed  over  into  the 
Christian  canon ;  but  more,  we  may  believe, 
by  way  of  tacit  acquiescence  than  of  active 
approval."  ^ 

1  Pp.  20-4,  205.  2  Inspiration,  p.  214. 


ESTHER  75 

The  fact  thus  appears  that  good  men 
both  in  the  Jewish  and  in  the  Christian 
churches  until  a  hite  date  disputed  the  ad- 
mission of  this  book  to  the  canon  of  the 
Scripture.  Indeed,  so  late  as  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  Dr.  Martin  Luther  was 
quite  positive  in  his  judgment  that  the  book 
had  no  rightful  ])lace  in  the  Bible.  "  We 
have  excluded  some  books,"  he  said,  "  but 
this,  most  of  all,  deserves  to  be  cast  out.  It 
Judaizes  too  much,  and  contains  much  hea- 
then naughtiness."  If  you  and  I  should 
venture,  therefore,  to  question  the  historical 
accuracy  of  this  book  and  the  soundness  of 
its  morality  we  should  find  ourselves  in  good 
company.  One  can  very  well  afford  to  be 
called  a  heretic  along  with  Athanasius,  and 
Augustine,  and  Gregory  of  Nazianzen,  and 
Martin  Luther. 

The  gradual  weakening  of  the  Christian 
protest  against  the  book  of  Esther  was  due, 
perhaps,  in  part,  to  the  gradual  strengthen- 
ing: of  the  Jewish  theories  concerniu":  the 
sacredness  of  the  book.  For  though,  as  I 
have  said,  it  was  one  of  the  books  in  dispute 
among  the  Jews  up  to  the  beginning  of  our 
era,  from  that  time  onward  Jewish  opinion 
became  more  and  more  positive  and  enthusi- 


76        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

astic  respecting  it.  This  was  partly  because 
of  its  connection  with  the  feast  of  Purim, 
which  was  becoming  more  and  more  popu- 
lar, and  largely  because  of  its  extrava- 
gant representations  of  Jewish  prestige  and 
power.  From  being  one  of  the  disputed 
books  of  the  Ketubim  it  came  to  be  the 
most  esteemed  of  all ;  so  that  one  of  their 
great  authorities,  Moses  Maimonides,  ex- 
presses the  opinion  that  when  the  Messiah 
shall  come,  all  the  prophetical  books  and  all 
the  books  of  the  Ketubim  except  Esther  will 
be  done  away  ;  that  the  only  Bible  which 
the  Jews  will  need  in  that  great  day  will 
be  the  Pentateuch  and  the  book  of  Esther. 
How  much  the  opinion  of  such  a  writer  is 
worth  on  a  question  of  inspiration  I  leave 
you  to  say.  So  far  as  the  decision  of  the 
Christian  Fathers  with  respect  to  this  book 
was  founded  on  Jewish  opinion,  it  does  not 
rest  on  a  good  foundation. 

Let  us  briefly  review  the  story.  The  scene 
is  laid  at  Shushan  the  palace,  by  which  is 
undoubtedly  intended  Susa,  the  Persian  cap- 
ital. The  ancient  Elam,  lying  a  few  hundred 
miles  north  of  the  head  of  the  Persian  Gulf, 
is  one  of  the  oldest  seats  of  civilization. 
The   people   who   originally   inhabited    the 


ESTHER  il 

region  appear  to  have  been  Semites,  but 
they  were  driven  out,  as  the  Celts  were 
driven  out  of  England  by  the  Saxons  ;  and 
the  Cushite  invaders  became  the  permanent 
occupants  of  the  country.  The  territory  lies 
east  of  the  Tigris,  a  fertile  plain  stretching 
back  to  mountains  with  ample  pasturage, 
from  which  streams  with  abundant  and  pure 
water  descend  to  the  great  river.  Elam, 
later  known  as  Susiana,  was  a  tributary 
province  of  Babylon ;  but  when  the  Per- 
sians became  the  dominant  race  Darius  the 
Great  built  Susa,  the  Shushan  of  this  story. 
The  climate  was  better  than  that  of  Perse- 
polis,  or  Babylon,  and  the  water  was  purer  ; 
it  became  the  favorite  capital  of  the  great 
king.  The  palace  was  almost  an  exact  copy 
of  that  at  Persepolis,  the  ruins  of  which 
have  been  uncovered;  there  is  a  familiar 
picture  of  the  lions  mounting  the  mighty 
staircase  to  the  terrace  where  a  few  pillars, 
lonely  in  the  moonlight,  stand  as  monuments 
of  the  grandeur  forever  gone.  This  is  Perse- 
polis, and  the  palace  at  Susa  was  built  after 
the  same  plan,  except  that  this  grand  stair- 
case was  not  repeated. 

The  son  of  Darius  who  succeeded  him  was 
known  by  the  Persians  as  Khschyarschan ; 


78        SEVEX  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

the  Hebrews  spelled  it  Acliascliverosch,  which 
our  translators  have  softened  into  Ahas- 
uerus ;  the  Greek  form  of  it  is  Xerxes.  It 
seems  clear  that  the  story  intends  to  bring 
before  us  the  great  Persian  despot  whose 
stupendous  exploits  Herodotus  has  rehearsed 
in  his  glowing  narrative.  Darius  his  father 
had  been  meditating  the  invasion  of  little 
Greece,  for  whom  he  had  no  more  love  than 
Abdul  the  Infamous  has  to-day.  In  the 
midst  of  his  preparations  he  suddenly  died, 
and  Xerxes,  on  his  succession,  having  put 
down  an  insurrection  among  his  subject 
Egyptians,  took  up  his  father's  unfinished 
enterprise.  Four  years  were  devoted  to  the 
gathering  and  equipment  of  the  army  and 
the  navy ;  all  the  countries  of  the  East  and 
even  Africa  were  drawn  upon  for  troops, 
and  the  land  and  naval  forces  that  were 
finally  led  through  Asia  Minor  and  up  the 
Mediterranean  formed,  undoubtedly,  the  big- 
gest marching  aggregation  of  human  beings 
that  ever  has  been  gathered  together  since 
the  world  began. 

The  fighting  men  are  said  by  Herodotus 
to  have  numbered  2,500,000,  and  the  fleet 
consisted  of  1207  fighting  vessels,  besides 
3000  smaller  vessels.     The  camp  followers 


ESTHER  7y 

greatly  swelled  this  number ;  Herodotus 
wishes  us  to  believe  that  there  were  six 
millions  in  all.  It  is  generally  safe  to  di- 
vide the  figures  of  an  Oriental  historian  by 
five ;  even  so,  there  may  have  been  a  mil- 
lion men  in  the  Persian  host.  I  do  not 
need  to  tell  the  story,  the  bridging  of  the 
Hellespont,  the  cutting  of  the  canal  through 
the  peninsula  of  Athos  ;  the  march  through 
those  very  plains  and  defiles  of  Thessaly 
where  the  Turks  and  the  Greeks  have  been 
fighting  just  now ;  the  immortal  struggle  at 
Thermopylae,  where  the  Greeks  of  to-day 
threatened  to  make  their  final  stand ;  the 
capture  and  destruction  of  Athens,  the  vic- 
tory of  the  Greek  fleet  at  Salamis,  and  the 
cowardly  and  precipitate  flight  of  Xerxes, 
with  the  scattering  and  destruction  of  his 
stupendous  army,  very  few  of  whose  battal- 
ions ever  found  their  way  back  to  Persia 
—  all  this  is  a  very  old  story.  All  that  we 
know  of  Xerxes  leads  us  to  feel  that  he  was 
one  of  the  sort  of  men  of  whom  the  world 
cannot  have  too  few.  Vainglorious,  pusil- 
lanimous, licentious,  and  bloodthirsty,  he 
was  a  nearly  perfect  embodiment  of  most  of 
the  qualities  which  a  ruler  of  men  ought  not 
to  possess.     When  a  father  who  had  sent 


80        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

five  sons  into  his  great  army  begged  tliat 
the  sixth  might  stay  at  home,  he  showed 
his  sympathy  with  the  father  by  having 
the  body  of  this  sixth  son  cut  in  twain  and 
making  the  father  march  between  the  two 
halves  of  it  on  his  way  to  Greece.  When  a 
storm  destroyed  his  bridge  over  the  Helles- 
pont, he  not  only  cut  off  the  heads  of  the 
engineers  who  built  it,  but  he  ordered  three 
hundred  lashes  to  be  administered  to  the 
rebellious  Hellespont,  and  a  pair  of  fetters 
to  be  thrown  into  it.  The  author  of  the 
book  of  Esther  probably  knew  something 
about  Xerxes ;  and  most  of  what  is  told  us 
of  Ahasuerus  might  w^ell  enough  have  been 
true  of  the  Persian  despot.  So  far  as  the 
king's  character  is  concerned  the  verisimil- 
itude is  fairly  close. 

This,  then,  is  the  king  with  the  unpro- 
nounceable name  and  the  insatiable  ambi- 
tion, who  is  said  to  have  made  a  great  feast 
for  his  nobles,  lasting  180  days,  and  then 
for  all  the  people  of  Susa,  continuing  a 
full  week.  Some  say  that  it  was  a  feast  in 
celebration  of  that  conquest  of  Greece  which 
he  was  going  forth  to  win,  and  that  it  oc- 
curred just  before  his  departure  on  that  ill- 
fated  campaign ;  that  he  spent  the  last  six 


ESTHER  81 

months  of  his  preparation  for  the  invasion 
in  a  drunken  orgy.  But  this  is  conjecture. 
On  the  last  day  of  this  debauch,  having 
nearly  exhausted  the  resources  of  indecency, 
he  summons  his  queen  to  exhibit  her  beauty 
before  his  drunken  nobles;  when  she  re- 
fuses, as  by  all  the  traditions  of  his  court, 
as  well  as  the  instincts  of  womanhood,  she 
was  bound  to  do,  he  deposes  her.  Here  the 
story  weakens.  Such  a  king  would  cer- 
tainly have  cut  off  her  head. 

Out  of  all  the  kingdom  the  most  beauti- 
ful young  women  are  now  drawn  to  Susa, 
and  out  of  this  array  of  beauty  the  king 
selects  a  Jewish  maiden,  Esther,  and  installs 
her  in  the  place  of  Queen  Yashti.  Her 
Hebrew  name  is  Hadassah ;  Esther,  which 
means  the  "  Star  of  Love,"  or  Yenus,  is  her 
Persian  name.  She  has  been  brought  up 
by  her  cousin  Mordecai,  a  Hebrew  of  the 
Hebrews,  and  it  is  he  who  has  secured  for 
her  this  elevation,  though  her  nationality  is 
not  known  to  the  king. 

Soon  after  her  coronation,  Mordecai  was 
enabled  through  Esther  to  give  information 
concerning  a  plot  against  the  king's  life ; 
the  king  hanged  the  conspirators  and  bade 
Mordecai's  good  deed  to  be  inscribed  in  the 
archives  of  the  kingdom. 


82        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

After  this  Xerxes  raised  to  a  high  rank 
a  certain  Ham  an,  and  commanded  all  his 
courtiers  to  do  obeisance  to  him.  Mordecai 
wor.ld  not  bow,  and  Haman,  to  avenge  the 
insult,  plotted  the  destruction  of  the  whole 
Hebrew  race.  The  king  yielded  to  Haman's 
prayer  and  the  fatal  decree  was  issued,  to 
take  effect  eleven  months  from  date.  All 
the  Jews,  young  and  old,  in  every  province, 
were  to  be  massacred  and  their  goods  con- 
fiscated. The  date  of  the  massacre  was  fixed 
by  lot.  Now  Esther,  instigated  by  Mor- 
decai, at  the  peril  of  her  life  intervenes,  pre- 
senting herself,  uninvited,  before  the  king; 
having  won  his  favor,  she  secures  a  pro- 
mise to  give  her  anything  she  asks  for,  even 
to  the  half  of  the  kingdom.  The  result  of 
all  the  dramatic  complications,  which  I  will 
not  stop  to  detail,  is  that  Haman  is  hanged, 
and  Mordecai  made  Grand  Vizier ;  and  while, 
according  to  Oriental  ethics,  no  royal  decree 
could  be  abrogated,  a  supplementary  decree 
was  issued,  authorizing  the  Jews  not  only  to 
stand  for  their  lives  on  the  day  appointed 
for  their  extinction,  but  to  kill  as  many  as 
they  pleased  of  the  Persians.  The  story 
represents  that  before  that  day  came  the 
Persians  were  so  intimidated  by  the  power 


ESTHER  83 

of  Mordecai  that  they  did  not  dare  to  touch 
the  Jews,  but  simply  stood  still  and  were 
slaughtered  by  the  Jews  to  the  number  of 
75,000.  In  the  palace  of  Susa  itseK  500 
Persians  were  slain  on  the  first  day  by  the 
infuriated  Jews,  while  not  a  Jew  suffered, 
so  far  as  we  are  told.  After  this  day  of 
blood  Xerxes,  apparently  feeling  that  his 
fair  queen  must  be  pretty  well  satiated  with 
the  carnage  which  had  been  going  on  under 
her  eyes,  asked  her  if  she  wanted  any  more, 
and  she  begged  that  the  slaughter  might  be 
permitted  to  go  on  for  one  more  day,  during 
which  300  more  of  the  Persians  were  butch- 
ered. The  ten  sons  of  Haman  had  been 
killed  the  first  day ;  and  Esther  stipulated 
also  that  their  dead  bodies  might  be  brought 
forth  and  publicly  hanged  upon  the  gallows, 
all  of  which  was  done  at  her  request,  and  for 
her  delectation.  The  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth daj^s  of  the  Jewish  month  Adar  are 
kept  in  memory  of  this  event  as  days  of 
gladness  and  feasting,  and  of  sending  por- 
tions one  to  another.  This  is  said  to  be  the 
origin  of  the  feast  of  Purim. 

Two  questions  now  arise  concerning  this 
book,  —  the  same  questions  that  occurred  to 
pious  Jews  in  Palestine  when  our  Lord  was 


84        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

on  the  earth,  and  to  such  saints  as  Athanaslus 
and  Augustine  and  Gregory  and  Luther. 
The  first  question  is  whether  this  is  a  true 
narration  of  historical  events,  and  the  sec- 
ond whether  the  conduct  which  the  book 
evidently  approves  is  right  conduct.  Is  the 
moral  teaching  of  the  book  sound  teaching  ? 
And  this  is  the  main  question.  The  book 
might  be  a  historical  romance,  founded  on 
fact,  —  as  some  books  of  the  Bible  undoubt- 
edly are,  —  and  still  be  highly  useful  because 
of  the  good  instruction  which  it  conveyed. 
The  fact  that  the  story  of  the  Prodigal  Son 
is  a  work  of  imagination  in  nowise  affects 
its  value.  For  purposes  of  inspiration  no 
fact  that  ever  occurred  is  worth  more  to  the 
world  than  this  bit  of  fiction.  If  the  book 
of  Esther  were  proved  to  be  largely  a  work 
of  the  imagination,  containing  historical  in- 
accuracies and  scientific  improbabilities,  its 
usefulness  would  not  be  discredited  pro- 
vided its  representation  of  the  great  truths 
of  conduct  and  character  were  true  and 
right.  But  if  the  impression  which  the  book 
is  calculated  to  make  upon  the  mind  respect- 
ing human  conduct  is  a  wrong  impression, 
if  its  standards  are  low,  if  its  ideals  are 
false,  then  it  is  not  of  much  use  to  try  to 
prove  that  it  is  historically  true. 


ESTHER  85 

The  fact  that  the  book  recites  wicked  and 
bloody  deeds  does  not  condemn  it.  Wicked 
and  bloody  deeds  are  often  occurring  and 
must  sometimes  be  rehearsed.  Other  books 
of  the  Bible  relate  to  us  great  impieties  and 
atrocities,  but  they  are  ordinarily  related  in 
such  a  way  that  our  moral  judgment  is  called 
forth  against  them.  David  committed  a 
great  sin ;  but  he  was  rebuked  for  it  by  the 
prophet  and  humbly  confessed  it.  The  writ- 
ers who  tell  these  stories  ordinarily  make 
us  feel  that  they  approve  the  good  and  con- 
demn the  evil.  It  is  not  always  true,  as  we 
have  seen,  but  it  is  generally  true.  Is  this 
the  fact  respecting  the  writer  of  the  book  of 
Esther  ? 

Those  for  whom  I  am  writing  have  read 
the  book,  and  can  answer  for  themselves. 
For  my  part,  I  think  that  those  pious  Jews 
of  the  first  century,  and  those  Christian 
fathers  and  reformers  of  later  centuries,  who 
denied  that  this  book  was  inspired  of  God, 
were  entirely  right. 

In  the  first  place,  the  absence  of  the  reli- 
gious element  is  notable.  Not  only  is  the 
name  of  God  absent  from  the  book,  there  is 
no  mention  of  any  religious  act  or  exercise 
except  the  fasting  of  Esther.     Prayer  is  not 


86        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

alluded  to ;  there  is  no  reference  to  tem- 
ple or  altar  or  sacrifice.  By  one  of  Morde- 
cai's  remarks  —  "  Who  knoweth  but  thou 
hast  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as 
this  ?  "  —  a  belief  in  Providence  is  suggested. 
"  The  point  of  view,"  says  Dr.  Driver,  "  is 
throughout  purely  secular  ;  the  preservation 
of  the  race  as  such,  and  its  worldly  great- 
ness, not  the  perpetuation  and  diffusion  of  its 
religion,  are  the  objects  in  which  the  author's 
interest  is  manifestly  centred."  ^ 

But  it  is  less  because  of  a  lack  of  religious- 
ness than  because  of  a  bad  morality  that 
the  book  falls  under  condemnation. 

That  a  petidant  courtier  like  Haman  shoidd 
have  plotted  the  destruction  of  the  Jews  is 
not  impossible,  and  the  heroic  efforts  of 
Mordecai  and  Esther  to  avert  this  calamity 
might  have  entitled  them  to  praise.  But  the 
kind  of  vengeance  which  they  are  said  to 
have  induced  this  despot  to  inflict  upon  the 
Persian  people  admits  of  no  justification. 
The  intended  massacre  of  their  race  appears 
to  have  been  instigated  solely  by  Haman ; 
there  is  no  intimation  that  any  other  Persian 
had  any  part  in  it ;  indeed,  there  is  a  sen- 
tence which  seems  to  mean  that  the  people  of 

1  Introduction  to  the  Old  Testament,  p.  457. 


ESTHER  87 

Persia  were  horrified  at  the  decree.  When 
it  was  published,  it  is  said  that  "  the  city 
Shushan  was  perplexed."  Yet  when  Ham  an, 
who  is  the  sole  instigator  of  this  atrocity,  is 
deposed  and  hanged,  and  Mordecai  is  made 
prime  minister  in  his  place,  Mordecai  and 
Esther  proceed  to  slaughter  75,000  of  these 
innocent  Persians,  as  vengeance  for  a  deed 
that  was  never  done  by  anybody,  and  which 
those  who  were  murdered  do  not  appear  to 
have  even  thought  of  doing.  We  are  given 
to  understand  that  this  75,000  included  not 
only  Persian  men,  but  "  their  little  ones 
and  their  women."  ^    All  this  appears  to  the 

1  A  sample  of  the  curiosities  of  exegesis  is  seen  in  the 
attempt  of  some  of  the  interpreters  to  make  out  that  the 
phrase  "little  ones  and  women,"  in  viii.  11,  is  gram- 
matically the  object  of  the  verb  "assault,"  rather  than 
of  the  previous  verbs  "  destroy,  slay,  and  cause  to  per- 
ish ;  "  i.  e.,  that  the  decree  of  Mordecai  did  not  authorize 
the  destruction  of  the  women  and  children  of  the  Per- 
sians, but  only  the  destruction  of  those  Persians  who  were 
seeking  to  destroy  their  women  and  children.  It  is  an 
interesting  example  of  the  lengths  to  which  traditional- 
ism can  go  in  twisting  language  for  the  concealment  of 
troublesome  facts.  The  fact  that  the  decree  of  Morde- 
cai is  intended  to  be  an  exact  duplication  of  the  decree 
of  Haman  (iii.  13),  and  that  it  permits  the  Jews  to  do  to 
the  Persians  exactly  what  the  Persians  had  been  author- 
ized to  do  to  the  Jews,  can  scarcely  be  doubted  by  any 
careful  reader.     The  Vulgate  makes  the   matter  clear: 


5«        SEVEN  PUZZLING  BIBLE   BOOKS 

author  of  the  book  of  Esther  a  highly  proper 
and  praiseworthy  proceeding. 

Much  is  made  by  the  apologists  for  the 
book  of  the  fact  that  the  terms  of  the  decree 
authorize  nothing  more  than  self-defense 
on  the  part  of  the  Jews.  It  is  evident  that 
this  is  what  the  writer  set  out  to  say ;  but 
in  telling  the  tale  his  imagination  was  per- 
mitted a  loose  rein,  and  he  ended  by  repre- 
senting the  Persians  as  standing  utterly 
cowed  and  helpless  before  the  onset  of  the 
Jews.  Besides,  he  tells  us  that  the  power 
of  Mordecai  was  so  great  and  universal  that 
the  whole  force  of  the  kingdom  was  on  the 
side  of  the  Jews ;  this  does  not  sound  like  a 
story  of  self-defense  :  — 

"  The  Jews  gathered  themselves  together 
in  their  cities  throughout  all  the  provinces 

'*  Oranes  inimicos  suos,  cum  conjiigibus  ac  liberis,  et  uni- 
versis  domibns,  interficerent  et  delerent."  Nearly  all  the 
most  conservative  commentators  give  the  text  this  inter- 
pretation, though  some  of  them  assert  that  the  Jews  did 
not  carry  this  part  of  the  decree  into  execution.  Their 
authority  for  this  assertion  they  carefully  conceal  from 
us.  Indeed,  the  sparing  of  women  and  children  in  such 
a  massacre  would  be  an  exceptional  occurrence.  The  text 
of  the  decree  describes  what  was  customary  in  the  wars 
of  that  period,  and  what  was  abundantly  authorized  by  the 
Jewish  Scriptures  in  the  extermination  of  the  Canaanites. 


ESTHER  89 

of  the  King  Ahasuerus  to  lay  hand  on  such 
as  sought  their  hurt ;  and  no  man  could 
withstand  them,  for  the  fear  of  them  was 
fallen  upon  all  the  people.  And  all  the 
princes  of  the  provinces  and  the  satraps  and 
the  governors  and  they  that  did  the  king's 
business  helped  the  Jews  ;  because  the  fear 
of  Mordecai  had  fallen  upon  them.  For 
Mordecai  was  great  in  the  king's  house, 
and  his  fame  went  forth  throughout  all  the 
provinces,  for  the  man  Mordecai  waxed 
greater  and  greater.  And  the  Jews  smote 
all  their  enemies  with  the  stroke  of  the 
sword,  and  with  slaughter  and  destruction, 
and  did  what  they  would  unto  all  that 
hated  them.  And  in  Shushan  the  i^alace 
the  Jews  slew  and  destroyed  five  hundred 
men."  i 

And  when,  after  the  first  days'  carnage 
in  the  palace,  Esther  begs  that  the  slaughter 
may  go  on  before  her  eyes  another  day,  the 
writer  sees  in  this  gross  savagery  nothing 
to  disapprove.  The  book  contains  no  syl- 
lable which  intimates  that  Mordecai  and 
Esther  were  actuated  by  an  improper  spirit, 
or  that  they  overstepped  the  limits  of  justice 
and  righteousness.     It  is  sometimes  said  by 

1  Chap.  ix.  2-6. 


90        SEVEX  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

the  ajiologlsts  that  the  book  is  a  colorless 
record,  neither  praising  nor  censuring  the 
acts  it  narrates ;  but  every  reader  knows 
that  Mordecai  and  Esther  represent  the 
writer's  ideals  of  human  virtue. 

The  Christian  teacher  who  represents  this 
book  as  teaching  a  sound  morality  or  as 
expressing  the  mind  of  the  Divine  Spirit 
takes  upon  himself  a  heavy  responsibility. 

If  the  book  is  not  a  safe  guide  in  morals 
or  religion,  it  would  be,  as  I  have  said 
already,  quite  absurd  to  argue  that  it  is 
historically  infallible.  If  the  spirit  which 
insj)ired  it  does  not  teach  sound  morals,  we 
need  not  expect  it  to  teach  the  truth  about 
historj'-.  And  there  is  plenty  of  evidence 
that  the  book  is  a  historical  fiction  and  one 
which  makes  very  free  with  facts. 

There  is  good  reason  for  doubting  that 
Xerxes  ever  had  a  queen  by  the  name  of 
Esther.  His  queen  between  the  seventh  and 
the  twelfth  years  of  his  reign  was  Amestris. 
We  know  much  about  her,  and  it  is  not  likely 
that  she  would  have  tolerated  a  rival.  More- 
over the  book  represents  Esther  as  the  queen, 
and  the  only  queen.  She  might  have  been 
a  favorite  of  the  monarch ;  his  queen  she 
certainly  was  not. 


ESTHER  91 

The  manner  in  which  the  queen  is  selected 
in  this  story  is  also  contrary  to  the  histori- 
cal fact ;  the  Persian  king  was  required  to 
choose  his  queen  from  one  of  six  noble 
families ;  and  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and 
the  Persians  in  matters  of  this  kind  were 
not  likely  to  be  tampered  with. 

In  fact,  all  that  is  related  about  the  de- 
cree for  the  massacre  of  the  Jews  which  was 
not  executed,  and  the  decree  for  the  massa- 
cre of  the  Persians  which  loas^  taxes  our  cre- 
dulity. Xerxes  was  a  somewhat  irrespon- 
sible monarch,  but  we  can  hardly  imagine 
that  even  he  would  order  the  extermination 
of  a  whole  race ;  for  Palestine  was  at  that 
time  a  Persian  dependency,  and  the  slaugh- 
ter must  have  involved  the  »Tews  in  Palestine 
as  well  as  those  dwelling  in  Persia, — not 
less  than  two  millions  of  people.  Nor  can 
we  quite  believe  that  this  Jewish  prime  min- 
ister could  have  so  completely  terrorized  the 
warlike  Persians  that  when  their  turn  came 
they  should  have  tamely  stood  still  and  been 
slaughtered  by  the  Jews,  to  the  number  of 
seventy-five  thousand,  without  lifting  a  finger 
to  defend  themselves,  —  especially  when  they 
knew  that  they  were  wholly  undeserving  of 
this  venofeance. 


92        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

On  tlie  whole,  we  are  justified,  on  many 
grounds,  in  doubting  whether  anything  just 
like  this  ever  happened  in  Susa  or  anywhere 
else.  There  may  have  been  an  attempted 
slaughter  of  Jews  in  Persia,  which  was 
foiled  by  the  courage  and  devotion  of  some 
Jewish  maiden  in  the  court  of  the  king  ; 
but  many  fictitious  embellishments  have 
probably  been  added  to  the  story  by  this 
writer.  "  Though,"  says  Dr.  Driver,  "  the 
narrative  cannot  reasonably  be  doubted  to 
have  a  historical  basis,  it  includes  items  that 
are  not  strictly  historical ;  the  elements  of 
the  narrative  were  supplied  to  the  writer 
by  tradition,  and,  aided  by  his  knowledge  of 
Persian  life  and  customs,  he  combined  them 
into  a  consistent  picture ;  in  some  cases 
the  details  were  colored  already  by  tradition 
before  they  came  to  the  author's  hand,  in 
other  cases  they  owe  their  present  form 
to  the  author's  love  of  dramatic  effect.  An 
evident  collateral  aim  of  the  narrative  is  to 
magnify  the  importance  and  influence  of  the 
Jews.  ...  It  is  in  some  of  the  details  con- 
nected with  his  picture  of  the  Jews  that 
the  author's  narrative  is  most  open  to  the 
suspicion  of  exaggeration.  It  is  probable, 
in  fact,  that  the   danger  which  threatened 


ESTHER  9^ 

the  Jews  was  a  local  one,  and  that  the 
massacre  which  they  wrought  upon  their 
foes  was  on  a  much  smaller  scale  than  is 
represented."  ^ 

Upon  the  historical  and  critical  questions 
here  involved,  many  of  us  would  feel  dis- 
inclined to  venture  an  opinion,  but  any  of 
us  may  have  an  opinion  upon  the  moral 
teaching  of  the  book ;  and  if  the  author  is 
convicted  of  grave  error  in  this  respect,  it 
is  rather  superfluous  to  claim  for  him  his- 
torical inerrancy. 

There  are  traits  in  the  narrative  which 
win  our  approval.  The  stanch  patriotism 
of  Mordecai  and  Esther;  their  passionate 
grief  over  the  disaster  that  threatens  their 
people  ;  the  heroism  of  Esther  in  taking  her 
life  in  her  hand  and  venturing  into  the 
king's  presence,  saying,  "  If  I  perish,  I  per- 
ish," —  all  this  is  exemplary  and  noble.  If 
the  writer  could  have  contented  himself 
with  making  Esther  and  Mordecai  the  res- 
cuers of  their  people  (we  could  have  justi- 
fied him  in  getting  Haman  happily  hanged 
in  the  operation),  the  book  might  have  been 
as  precious  as  Jewish  national  partiality  has 
represented  it  to  be ;  but  the  last  three 
1  Introduction,  pp.  453,  454. 


94        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

chapters  are  the  expression  of  a  moral  sen- 
timent which  is  utterly  at  war,  not  only 
with  the  ethics  of  the  New  Testament,  but 
with  the  teaching  of  the  Old  Testament  as 
well.  Evvald  is  right  when  he  says  that 
"  in  passing  to  Esther  from  other  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  we  pass  from  heaven  to 
earth." 

The  book  is  here  in  the  Bible,  and  it  has 
its  uses.  There  is  no  other  book  in  the 
Bible  that  it  is  so  hard  to  account  for ;  there 
is  none  which  needs  to  be  handled  so  care- 
fully ;  nevertheless  it  has  its  uses. 

It  is  useful,  for  one  thing,  as  a  standing 
illustration  of  how  little  Jewish  tradition 
is  worth  in  deciding  a  question  of  inspira- 
tion. 

It  is  useful  as  a  picture  of  an  Oriental 
court ;  for  in  spite  of  the  exaggerations  re- 
specting the  details  of  the  massacres,  the 
representation  of  life  at  the  court  of  Xerxes 
in  the  palace  of  Susa  is  probably  substan- 
tially correct. 

Above  all,  it  is  useful  as  showing  us  the 
kind  of  character  that  has  passed  for  an 
ideal  of  womanhood  in  former  ages.  There 
is  reason  to  fear  that  many  Christian  read- 
ers have  suffered  some  confusion  of   their 


ESTHER  95 

moral  sense  in  reading  the  sympathetic  de- 
lineation of  the  character  of  this  author's 
heroine.  Vashti  is  the  character  which  most 
demands  our  sympathy,  but  the  art  of  the 
writer  seeks  to  transfer  all  our  affection  to 
Esther.  To  take  the  view  of  this  character 
which  the  author  of  this  book  intends  us  to 
take  is  quite  impossible  for  any  one  who 
knows  anything  of  Christian  morality ;  but 
on  the  supposition  that  the  writer  of  this 
book  is  inspired  of  God,  his  view  of  the 
character  must  of  course  be  taken. 

It  is  not  good  for  us  to  try  to  justify  or 
to  excuse  such  conduct  as  this,  or  to  think 
about  it  in  the  way  that  the  author  of  this 
book  thinks  about  it.  And  we  may  say  that 
this  book  is  chiefly  useful  as  a  dark  back- 
ground on  which  we  may  see  more  clearly 
the  brightness  of  the  Christian  morality. 
The  character  of  Esther  serves  us  best  when 
we  think  of  it  as  a  type  of  womanhood, 
once  deemed  admirable,  which  Jesus  Christ 
has  made  it  impossible  for  us  to  regard 
with  any  other  feelings  than  wonder  and 
pity.  Perhaps  his  eye  was  on  this  book 
when  He  said  :  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was 
said.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  and  hate 
thine  enemy,  but  I  say  unto  you  love  your 


9G        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

enemies,  and  pray  for  them  that  persecute 
you,  that  you  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  in 
heaven  ;  for  He  maketh  his  sun  to  shine  on 
the  evil  and  the  good,  and  sendeth  his  rain 
on  the  just  and  the  unjust." 


IV 

JOB 

The  book  of  Job  consists  of  five  parts. 
The  first  part,  or  prologue,  which  occupies 
the  first  two  chapters,  is  in  prose.  It  intro- 
duces to  us  a  man  of  Uz,  an  Arabian  emir 
of  great  wealth  and  probity,  "  the  greatest 
of  all  the  sons  of  the  East,"  —  a  man  who 
was  "  perfect  and  upright,  one  who  feared 
God  and  eschewed  evil.  And  there  were 
born  unto  him  seven  sons  and  three  daugh- 
ters. His  substance  also  was  seven  thou- 
sand sheep  and  three  thousand  camels  and 
four  hundred  yoke  of  oxen  and  five  hun- 
dred she  asses  and  a  very  great  household." 
He  is  represented  as  a  man  of  great  piety, 
careful  to  observe  not  only  the  law  of  right- 
eousness, but  the  ceremonial  requirements 
as  well. 

From  this  glimpse  of  a  great  and  fortu- 
nate human  personality,  the  scene  suddenly 
changes  to  the  heavenly  courts  where  Jeho- 
vah is  seated  on  his  throne,  and  "  the  sous 


98        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

of  God,"  who  appear  to  be  liis  angelic  at- 
tendants, present  themselves  before  Hmi. 
"  And  Satan  came  also  among  them."  This 
Satan  of  the  Book  of  Job  is  by  no  means 
the  Prince  of  Darkness  of  whom  we  read 
in  later  Scriptures ;  he  is  that  one  of  the 
officials  of  the  court  of  heaven  whose  duty 
it  is  to  question  the  claims  of  men  to  the 
favor  of  God,  and  to  prevent  the  unworthy 
from  sharing  his  blessings.  The  conversa- 
tion between  Jehovah  and  Satan  respecting 
the  character  of  Job  is  reported.  Jehovah 
asserts  the  integrity  of  his  servant  Job ; 
Satan  questions  it,  asserting  that  Job  is  not 
disinterested ;  that  adversity  would  disturb 
his  loyalty.  Jehovah  gives  Satan  full  power 
to  test  the  patriarch's  character  by  the  dir- 
est calamities ;  but  when  all  his  vast  wealth 
has  been  swe^Jt  away  and  his  sons  and  daugh- 
ters have  been  torn  from  him,  his  answer  is, 
"  The  Lord  gave  and  the  Lord  hath  taken 
away ;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord. " 

Again  the  council  of  heaven  is  convened, 
and  the  Adversary  returns  to  confess  him- 
self foiled  by  Job's  fidelity,  but  to  urge 
that  the  infliction  upon  him  of  the  terrible 
physical  curse  of  elephantiasis  will  weaken 
his  allegiance.     Still  Job  endures  his  suffer- 


JOB  99 

ing  without  outcry.  Months  pass  by ;  his 
condition  is  known  to  all  his  friends.  At 
last  three  of  them  came  to  visit  him,  "  every 
one  from  his  own  place :  Eliphaz  the  Te- 
manite,  and  Bildad  the  Shuhite,  and  Zophar 
the  Naamathite ;  and  they  made  an  appoint- 
ment together  to  bemoan  him  and  to  comfort 
him.  And  when  they  lifted  up  their  eyes 
afar  off,  and  knew  him  not,  they  lifted  up 
their  voice  and  wept.  And  they  rent  every 
one  his  mantle,  and  sprinkled  dust  upon 
their  heads  toward  heaven.  So  they  sat 
down  with  him  upon  the  ground,  seven  days 
and  seven  nights,  and  none  spake  a  word 
unto  him,  for  they  saw  that  his  grief  was 
great." 

Thus  ends  the  prologue.  The  second 
part  comprises  the  body  of  the  book,  and  is 
in  poetry.  It  is  a  great  debate,  a  series  of 
speeches,  in  which  Job's  three  friends  dis- 
cuss with  him  the  significance  of  his  calam- 
ities. This  dialogue  is  introduced  by  a  sol- 
emn malediction  pronounced  by  Job  upon  the 
day  of  his  birth.  Then  follow  three  cycles  of 
speeches,  each  cycle  consisting  of  six.  Each 
of  the  three  friends  delivers  his  thought, 
and  is  replied  to  by  Job.  Elij^haz  speaks 
and  Job  answers ;  then  Bildad  speaks  and 


100        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

Job  answers :  then  Zophar  speaks  and  Job 
answers.  And  this  order  is  thrice  repeated, 
although,  owing  to  some  errors  and  trans- 
positions of  copyists,  the  last  triplet  appears 
in  our  Bibles  to  be  an  imperfect  one. 

After  these  three  rounds  of  high  debate, 
another  character  introduces  himself  and 
with  himself  the  third  part  of  the  book.  It 
is  Elihu,  who  is  represented  as  a  young 
man  with  ideas  of  his  own  on  this  transcen- 
dent theme.  He  has  been  listening  to  the 
others  and  conceives  that  he  can  add  some- 
thing to  what  has  been  said.  In  the  midst 
of  his  speech  a  storm  has  been  gathering, 
and  out  of  the  storm  and  the  whirlwind  is 
heard  the  voice  of  the  Almighty  rebuking 
the  superficialities  of  all  who  have  spoken, 
and  flooding  the  whole  theme  with  light 
from  the  eternities.  The  sublime  utterance 
of  the  Most  High  constitutes  the  fourth  part 
of  the  book. 

When  this  august  voice  has  ceased  we 
hear,  in  the  silence,  a  few  contrite  words 
from  Job,  and  then  follows  the  fifth  part  of 
the  book,  the  epilogue,  in  prose,  which  nar- 
rates the  restoration  to  Job  of  health  and 
prosperity.  The  three  self-constituted  cen- 
sors are  rebuked  by  Jehovah  for  not  speak- 


JOB  101 

lug  the  tiling  that  is  right  concerniug  God 
as  his  servant  Job  has  done.  His  friends 
now  return  to  him,  and  eat  bread  in  his 
house ;  every  man  brings  him  a  piece  of 
money  and  every  man  a  ring  of  gold.  "  So 
the  Lord  blessed  the  latter  end  of  Job  more 
than  his  beginning:  and  he  had  fourteen 
thousand  sheep  and  six  thousand  camels  and 
a  thousand  yoke  of  oxen  and  a  thousand  she 
asses.  He  had  also  seven  sons  and  three 
daughters.  And  he  called  the  name  of  the 
first  Jemimah,  the  name  of  the  second  Ke- 
ziah,  and  the  name  of  the  third  Keren-hap- 
puch.  And  in  all  the  land  were  no  women 
found  so  fair  as  the  daughters  of  Job :  and 
their  father  gave  them  inheritance  among 
their  brethren.  And  after  this  Job  lived  a 
hundred  and  forty  years,  and  saw  his  sons 
and  his  sons'  sons,  even  four  generations. 
So  Job  died,  being  old  and  full  of  days.'' 

The  first  question  before  us  is  whether 
this  book  is  a  recital  of  facts  which  actually 
occurred  and  a  report  of  speeches  actually 
made,  or  whether  it  is  a  work  of  the  imagi- 
nation. The  general  belief  has  been  that  it 
is  purely  historical ;  that  a  man  named  Job 
lived  in  the  land  of  Uz,  which  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  northern  part  of  Arabia ; 


102       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

that  the  conversation  concerning  him  be- 
tween Jehovah  and  Satan  actually  took  place 
as  here  reported :  that  the  calamities  here 
narrated  overtook  him,  exactly  as  here  de- 
scribed ;  that  then  his  three  friends  whose 
names  are  accurately  given  came  and  sat 
silent  with  him  on  the  ground  for  seven  days 
and  seven  nights,  after  which  the  colloquy 
here  given  took  place  in  the  words  here  re- 
cited. 

This  theory  of  the  book,  which  has  been 
held,  I  suppose,  for  substance,  by  most  Pro- 
testant readers,  is  burdened  with  some  diffi- 
culties. In  the  first  place,  all  the  narrative 
portions  seem  to  be  constructed  after  an 
ideal  or  artificial  plan  ;  it  seems  remarkable 
that  in  each  of  the  four  great  catastrophes 
by  which  his  property  was  swept  away  and 
his  family  destroyed,  there  was  just  one  sur- 
vivor left  to  tell  the  tale.  God's  providences 
do  not  ordinarily  operate  by  a  rule  so  exact 
and  mathematical.  It  seems  also  remark- 
able that  in  the  two  reported  conversations 
between  the  Almighty  and  the  Adversary, 
exactly  the  same  words  should  have  been 
used  each  time.  The  constant  use  of  the 
sjrmbolical  numbers,  three,  five  and  seven  ; 
and  the  statement  that  after  his  restoration 


JOB  103 

he  had  exactly  as  many  children  as  he  had 
before,  the  sexes  being  represented  as  before, 
while  his  flocks  and  herds  numbered  exactly 
twice  as  many,  indicates  that  we  are  not 
dealing  with  historical  occurrences,  but  with 
a  work  of  the  imagination. 

Furthermore,  it  is  not  at  all  probable  that 
four  real  men  ever  came  together,  in  any 
country  in  any  age,  and  talked  to  one  another 
after  the  manner  of  these  four  men.  For 
this  is  poetry  of  the  most  elaborate  and  or- 
nate character ;  it  represents  the  finest  kind 
of  literary  art,  and  men  do  not  carry  on  con- 
versations in  language  of  this  description,  no 
matter  how  cultivated  they  may  be  nor  how 
deeply  they  may  be  moved  by  thought  or 
passion.  Scott  gives  us  in  "  The  Lady  of  the 
Lake  "  some  animated  conversations  between 
Fitz  James  and  Roderick  Dhu;  but  I  sup- 
pose that  no  reader  imagines  that  the  two 
chiefs  —  if  they  ever  existed  —  really  talked 
to  each  other  in  just  that  language,  in  per- 
fect rhythm  and  resounding  rhyme.  Shake- 
speare gives  us  in  Julius  Caesar  some  eloquent 
controversy  between  Brutus,  Cassius,  Marc 
Antony,  and  others ;  but  we  do  not  con- 
ceive that  it  is  a  stenographic  report  of  what 
was  said  on  those  occasions.     When  we  find 


104       SEVEN  PUZZLING  BIBLE  BOOKS 

language  of  this  description  put  into  the 
mouths  of  men  in  a  book,  we  do  not,  outside 
of  the  Bible,  ordinarily  suppose  that  we  are 
reading  the  very  words  of  the  speakers. 

But  it  may  be  said  that  these  were  in- 
spired men ;  and  that  if  God  inspires  a 
man.  He  can  just  as  well  inspire  him  to  talk 
poetry  as  plain  prose.  To  this  it  may  be 
replied  that  these  men,  according  to  the 
story  itself,  could  not  have  been  inspired. 
Leaving  Job  out  of  the  account  for  the 
present,  we  may  safely  affirm  that  Eliphaz 
the  Temanite  was  not  an  inspired  man ; 
neither  was  Bildad  the  Shuhite,  nor  Zophar 
the  Naamathite.  These  characters  are  all, 
in  the  last  part  of  the  book,  sharply  re- 
buked by  Jehovah  himself  for  having  dark- 
ened counsel  by  words  without  knowledge  ; 
for  having  spoken  concerning  God  the 
thing  that  was  not  right.  Their  whole  line 
of  aro^ument  is  condemned  and  set  aside 
by  the  Almighty  Himself.  We  can  hardly 
suppose  that  God  inspired  them  to  speak 
error  and  then  rebuked  them  for  speaking 
it.  No :  there  could  have  been  nothing 
supernatural  about  the  speech  of  these  men, 
if,  according  to  the  supposition  we  are  now 
considering,  they  were  real  men.     And  real 


JOB  105 

men  do  not,  without  supernatural  aid,  make 
use  in  conversation  of  language  like  this. 
The  dialogue,  as  Dr.  Driver  says,  "  contains 
far  too  much  thought  and  argument  to  have 
been  extemporized  on  the  occasion,  and  is 
manifestly  the  studied  product  of  the  au- 
thor's leisurely  reflection." 

It  seems  almost  puerile  to  argue  a  point 
like  this ;  and  yet  the  suggestion  that  we 
are  dealing  here  with  a  great  dramatic 
poem  —  a  work  of  the  imagination  —  is  re- 
garded by  many  pious  people  at  this  day 
with  consternation.  A  neighboring  pastor 
told  me  of  the  alarm  which  a  remark  of  this 
kind  created  among  his  flock.  "  Job  a 
dramatic  poem  !  A  dramatic  poem  in  the 
Bible  !  "  There  are  those  to  whom  a  state- 
ment of  this  nature  appears  to  be  little 
short  of  blasphemy.  They  want  to  know  if 
you  think  that  the  book  is  all  a  lie.  No  :  it 
is  not  all  a  lie.  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Pro- 
gress "  is  not  all  a  lie.  The  story  of  the 
Good  Samaritan  is  not  all  a  lie.  The  au- 
thor of  the  Book  of  Job  was  not  telling  lies 
when  he  fashioned  the  framework  of  this 
story  and  constructed  the  simple  dramatic 
machinery  by  means  of  which  his  great 
thoughts  were  to  be  set  forth.    Undoubtedly 


106        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

lie  supposed  that  his  book  would  be  read  by 
persons  of  ordinary  common  sense.  Prob- 
ably it  never  once  entered  his  mind  that  any- 
body would  ever  take  his  work  for  a  literal 
history,  any  more  than  it  occurred  to  Shake- 
speare, when  he  wrote  "  The  Tempest,"  that 
any  one  would  accept  it  as  a  recital  of  facts 
which  actually  occurred,  and  of  speeches 
which  were  really  made.  Outside  of  the 
Bible  we  are  able,  usually,  to  use  our  rea- 
soning powers  in  the  interpretation  of  liter- 
ature ;  very  small  children  soon  learn  to 
distinguish  between  fact  and  fancy.  It  is 
high  time  that  we  had  learned  that  the 
collection  of  books  which  we  call  the  Bible 
contains  a  great  many  kinds  of  literature,  — 
history,  law,  philosophy,  poetry,  essays,  ser- 
mons, stories,  —  and  that  we  must  learn  to 
apply  to  each  the  canons  appropriate  for 
the  judgment  of  that  class  of  writings  to 
which  it  clearly  belongs.  We  must  not 
read  hymns  as  if  they  were  sermons,  or 
essays  as  if  they  were  laws,  or  fiction  as  if 
it  were  history.  We  must  try  to  get  the 
point  of  view  of  the  writer,  and  understand 
the  purpose  he  has  in  view,  and  the  method 
by  which  he  is  working.  When  we  are 
once   able  to  get  into  our  minds  a  few  of 


JOB 


107 


these  very  rudimentary  ideas  about  literary 
form,  we  shall  be  able  to  realize  that  the 
author  of  the  Book  of  Job  is  neither  a 
historian  nor  a  liar,  but  a  poet,  a  great 
dramatic  poet,  who  is  able  to  use  his  art, 
under  divine  inspiration,  for  the  most  sub- 
lime purposes. 

There  has   been  much  speculation  about 
the    date    at  which   the  poem  was  written, 
and  the  matter  is  not  well  settled.     It  is  an 
interesting  but  not  an   important  question. 
My  own  opinion  is  that  it  was  written  dur- 
ing or  after  the  exile,  —  that  it  is  a  compar- 
atively late  book.    Respecting  its  authorship 
we  have  absolutely  no  knowledge.    There  was 
an  old  tradition  that  Moses  wrote  it,  which 
is  of  course  even  more  absurd  than  the  the- 
ory that  Bacon  wrote  the  plays  of   Shake- 
speare.    It   must   have   been   written    long 
after  the  people  of  Israel  had  dwelt  in  their 
own    land.     Walled    cities    are   familiar  to 
the   writer;    he   lives    in    a   community   of 
which   kings,    princes,    nobles,    counsellors, 
judges,  are  the  ornaments  ;    there  must  be 
a  settled  government.     ''  Courts,"  says  Mr. 
Raymond,    "are    called    by    notice    given; 
criminals  are  arrested  ;  complaints  are  heard  ; 
lawsuits  are  conducted  concerning  disputed 


108       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

inheritances  ;  the  magistrate,  sitting  in  the 
gate,  makes  summary  judgment ;  witnesses 
testify ;  sureties  are  offered  for  accused 
parties  ;  accusers  present  their  charges  in 
writing ;  the  prison  and  the  stocks  await  the 
condemned,  or  capital  punishment  is  in- 
flicted by  the  sword.  .  .  .  Yet  the  tone  of 
society  seems  to  be  demoralized.  The  judges 
are  bribed  by  the  rich  to  wrong  the  poor ; 
the  sins  denounced  in  public  are  practiced 
secretly ;  slaves  are  cruelly  wronged ;  the 
victims  of  power  are  oppressed ;  men  ad- 
mire and  are  fain  to  imitate  the  successful 
tyrant."  ^  All  this  is  found  in  the  book 
itself,  in  picture  and  simile  and  allusion. 
Such  a  state  of  society  was  present  to  the 
mind  of  the  writer,  and  also  to  the  minds 
of  those  for  whom  he  wrote,  else  his  book 
would  not  have  been  intelligible  to  them. 
This  takes  us  down  into  the  time  of  the 
kingdom,  and  probably  to  the  later  years  of 
the  kingdom. 

It  is,  however,  remarkable  that  the  whole 
ecclesiastical  and  liturgical  machinery  of  the 
Jewish  church  is  ignored  by  this  writer.  It 
did  not  suit  his  purposes  to  deal  with  the 
ritualistic  side  of  religion ;  he  was  studying 
1  The  Book  of  Job,  p^.  31,  S2. 


JOB  109 

a  question  in  wliich  tlie  introduction  of  that 
element  would  only  confuse  thought;  he 
shows  his  great  skill  in  passing  it  by. 

When  we  speak  of  this  as  a  dramatic 
poem,  and  a  work  of  the  imagination,  it  is 
not  necessary  to  deny  that  it  may  have  a 
historical  foundation.  "  Hamlet "  rests  on  a 
historical  foundation  ;  so  does  "  Macbeth  ;  " 
yet  they  are  works  of  imagination.  '^  The 
Ring  and  the  Book "  is  founded  on  fact ; 
Mr.  Browning  dug  the  substance  of  the  story 
out  of  an  old  law  report.  In  Ezekiel  Job  is 
referred  to  as  if  he  were  a  well-known  person. 
It  is  possible,  of  course,  that  the  allusion 
here  may  be  literary.  We  often  speak  of 
Polonius,  or  Colonel  Newcome,  or  Mr.  Pick- 
wick as  though  they  were  real  characters. 
It  is,  however,  altogether  probable  that  Job 
was  an  historical  person,  and  that  traditions 
concerning  him  were  current  among  the 
Jews.  "  To  determine,"  says  Dr.  Driver, 
"  precisely  what  elements  in  the  book  be- 
long to  tradition  is,  of  course,  no  longer  pos- 
sible. But  probably  tradition  told  at  least 
as  much  as  that  Job,  a  man  of  exceptional 
piety,  was  overtaken  by  unparalleled  mis- 
fortunes ;  that  he  broke  out  into  complaint 
against  God's  providence,  and  refused  to  be 


110        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

satisfied  or  calmed  by  the  arguments  of  his 
friends,  but  that  he  never  absolutely  dis- 
carded his  faith  in  God,  and  was  finally  re- 
stored to  his  former  prosperity.  This  his- 
tory is  made  by  the  author  of  the  book  the 
vehicle  for  expounding  his  new  thoughts  on 
the  religious  and  ethical  significance  of  suf- 
fering." 1 

For  this  is  the  great  theme  of  the  book. 
Job,  as  the  prologue  tells  us,  bore  the  heavy 
calamities  that  befell  him  without  a  word  of 
murmuring.  He  did  not  understand  this 
dispensation,  but  he  was  silent ;  he  could 
have  said  of  himself  what  the  Psalmist 
said :  "  I  was  dumb  ;  I  opened  not  my 
mouth,  because  thou  didst  it."  But  when 
his  three  friends  came  and  sat  down  around 
him  on  the  ground  and  looked  at  him  for 
seven  days  without  opening  their  lips,  he 
lost  control  of  himself  and  cursed,  not  God, 
but  his  own  bitter  existence  :  — 

"  Let  the  day  perish  wherein  I  was  born, 
And  the  nig-ht  which  said,  there  is  a  man  child  conceived. 
Let  that  day  be  darkness  ; 
Let  not  God  regard  it  from  above, 
Neither  let  the  light  shine  upon  it  ! 

Let  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death  claim  it  for  their 
own; 

^  Introduction,  p.  o87. 


JOB  111 

Let  a  cloud  dwell  upon  it ! 

Let  all  that  maketh  black  the  day  terrify  it ! 

Wherefore  is  light  given  to  him  that  is  in  misery 

And  life  unto  the  bitter  in  soul  ? 

Which  long  for  death,  but  it  conieth  not. 

And  dig  for  it  more  than  for  hid  treasures, 

Which  rejoice  exceedingly 

And  are  glad  when  they  can  find  the  grave." 

This  outburst  of  Job's  passionate  com- 
plaining unmuzzles  his  three  friends,  and 
they  proceed,  in  order,  to  deal  out  to  him 
their  admonition.  For  as  Dr.  Davidson 
says,  they  had  not  come  simply  for  purposes 
of  condolence.  "  Along  with  their  pity  they 
had  brought  their  theology  with  them,  and 
they  trusted  to  heal  Job's  malady  with  this." 
We  may  picture  the  characters  of  these  three 
friends,  as  revealed  in  their  words. 

"  Eliphaz,"  says  Canon  Cook,  "  represents 
the  true  patriarchal  chieftain,  grave  and 
dignified,  and  erring  only  from  an  exclusive 
adherence  to  tenets  hitherto  unquestioned, 
and  influenced  in  the  first  place  by  a  genuine 
regard  for  Job  and  sympathy  with  his  afflic- 
tion. Bildad,  without  much  originality  or 
independence  of  character,  reposes  partly  on 
the  wise  laws  of  antiquity,  partly  on  the 
authority  of  his  older  friend.  Zophar  dif- 
fers from   both ;  he   seems   to  be  a  young 


112        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

man  ;  his  language  is  violent  and  at  some 
times  even  coarse  and  offensive.  He  repre- 
sents the  prejudiced  and  narrow-minded 
bigots  of  his  age."  That  is  one  conjecture. 
You  can  judge  for  yourselves  whether  it  is 
reasonable.  The  theology  which  the  three 
friends  have  brought  with  them  assumes 
that  human  suffering  is  always  the  penalty  of 
sin  ;  that  the  existence  of  suffering  is  there- 
fore the  clear  indication  of  sin  ;  that  Job's 
great  afflictions  prove  him  to  be  a  great  sin- 
ner, and  that  he  ought  to  repent  and  humble 
himself  before  God  that  his  sins  may  be  for- 
given and  his  sufferings  removed.  So  Eli- 
phaz  urges  in  his  first  speech  :  — 

*'  Remember,  I  pray  thee,  who  ever  perished,  being  in- 
nocent, 
Or  when  were  the  upright  cut  off  ? 
According  as  I  have  seen,  they  that  plow  iniquity 
And  sow  trouble,  they  reap  the  same. 
By  the  breath  of  God  they  perish 
And  by  the  blast  of  his  anger  are  they  consumed." 

As  for  me  I  would  seek  unto  God, 

And  unto  God  would  I  commit  my  cause." 

Behold,  happy  is  the  man  whom  God  correcteth  ; 
Therefore  despise  not  the  chastening  of  the  Almighty, 
For  he  maketh  sore  and  bindeth  up, 
He  woundeth,  and  his  hands  make  whole." 

Beginning  in  this  rather  diplomatic  man- 


JOB  113 

ner,  tliese  three  friends  press  upon  Job, 
through  thirty  chapters  of  this  book,  their 
theory  that  his  sufferings  are  evidence  of 
grievous  iniquity  for  which  he  should  be 
duly  penitent. 

Job  answers  all  this  pious  exhortation 
sternly  and  stoutly  and  bitterly.  He  does 
not,  probably,  intend  to  deny  that  he  some- 
times errs,  though  he  does  apply  to  himself 
the  adjective  "  perfect "  with  which  he  is  de- 
scribed in  the  first  verse  of  the  book.  But 
he  knows  that  he  is  not  such  a  sinner  above 
all  others,  as  that  he  should  suffer  these  un- 
paralleled disasters  and  miseries.  He  main- 
tains his  own  integrity.  He  denies  that 
these  evils  can  have  been  justly  inflicted 
upon  him  by  his  Maker.  The  doctrine  that 
all  suffering  is  punishment  he  indignantly 
repudiates.  And  when  his  friends  press  it 
upon  him  more  and  strenuously  he  rouses 
himself  and  denies  more  hotly  than  a  good 
man  should.     Bildad  has  said, 

"  Behold,  God  will  not  cast  away  a  perfect  man, 
Neither  will  he  uphold  the  evil  doers." 

Nay,  says  Job  :  — 

* '  He  destroy eth  the  perfect  and  the  wicked ; 
If  the  scourge  slay  suddenly, 
He  will  mock  at  the  calamity  of  the  innocent. 
The  earth  is  given  into  the  hand  of  the  wicked." 


114        SEVEX   PUZZLING    BIBLB    BOOKS 

To  this  fact  of  tlie  success  and  prosperity 
of  bad  men  Job  returns  again  and  again. 
His  friends  keep  asserting  that  the  good  are 
always  prosperous  and  the  wicked  always 
unfortunate,  and  Job  with  the  utmost  vehe- 
mence denies  it. 

"Wherefore  do  the  wicked  live, 
Become  old,  yea  wax  mig-hty  in  power  ? 
Their  seed  is  established  with  them  iu  their  sight, 
And  their  offspring  before  their  eyes. 
Their  houses  are  safe  from  fear, 
Neither  is  the  rod  of  God  upon  them. 
They  send  forth  their  little  ones  like  a  flock, 
And  their  children  dance. 
They  sing  to  the  timbrel  and  harp, 
And  rejoice  at  the  sound  of  the  pipe. 
.........  jf 

Yet  they  said  unto  God,  Depart  from  us, 

For  we  desire  not  the  knowledge  of  thy  ways." 

Job  loses  all  patience  with  his  three  friends 
because  they  refuse  to  recognize  this  palpa- 
ble truth.  He  more  than  intimates  that 
their  words  are  cant ;  that  they  are  syco- 
phants in  the  presence  of  the  Almighty 
Power.  And  his  exasperation  with  their 
special  pleading  is  such  that  he  is  driven 
into  an  attitude  of  bitter  complaining  not 
only  against  his  fate,  but  against  God,  who 
has  suffered  these  calamities  to  come  upon 
him. 


JOB  115 

*'  God  delivereth  me  to  the  ungodly, 
And  casteth  me  into  the  hands  of  the  wicked. 
I  was  at  ease  and  he  brake  me  asunder  ; 
Yea  he  hath  taken  me  by  the  neck  and  dashed  me  to 

pieces, 
He  hath  also  set  me  up  for  his  mark, 
His  archers  compass  me  round  about, 
He  cleaveth  my  reins  asunder  and  doth  not  spare, 
He  poureth  out  my  gall  upon  the  ground, 
He  breaketh  me  with  breach  upon  breach, 
He  runneth  iipon  me  like  a  giant. 
I  have  sowed  sackcloth  upon  my  skin, 
And  have  laid  my  horn  in  the  dust, 
My  face  is  foul  with  weeping-, 
And  on  my  eyelids  is  the  shadow  of  death, 
Although  there  is  no  violence  in  mine  hands 
And  my  prayer  is  pure. 
O  earth,  cover  not  thou  my  blood 
And  let  my  cry  have  no  resting  place !  " 

What  a  tragical  appeal  it  is  —  to  the 
dumb  earth,  to  keep  his  blood-stains  fresh  in 
the  sight  of  heaven,  and  to  the  vital  air  not 
to  let  his  bitter  wail  die  into  silence  ! 

Job  recognizes  the  power  of  God  ;  he 
knows  that  any  resistance  to  God's  power 
is  vain  ;  but  God's  justice  he  openly  chal- 
lenges. And  he  begs  for  the  privilege  of 
standing  before  God  and  pleading  his  own 


cause : 


'  0  that  I  knew  where  I  might  find  him, 
That  I  might  come  even  to  his  seat. 
I  would  order  my  cause  before  him 
And  fill  my  mouth  with  arguments." 


116       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

Sometimes  he  seems  to  despair  utterly, 
and  some  of  the  expressions  of  confidence 
which  the  old  version  put  into  his  mouth 
are  of  doubtful  genuineness.  Thus  the 
phrase  "  Though  he  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust 
in  him,"  —  which  has  so  long  been  quoted 
as  the  triumph  of  his  faith,  —  is  now  more 
carefully  translated,  "  He  will  slay  me  ;  I 
have  no  hope."  Yet  now  and  then  he  seems 
to  feel  that  an  end  must  come  to  these 
sufferings,  and  that  his  wrongs  will  be 
righted. 

"  He  knoweth  the  way  that  I  take. 
When  he  hath  tried  me  I  shall  come  forth  as  gold." 

And  in  one  great  outburst  of  the  larger 
hope  he  seems  to  see  a  future  deliver- 
ance :  — 

"  O  that  my  words  were  inscribed  in  a  book, 
That  with  an  ii'on  pen  and  lead 
They  were  graven  in  the  rock  forever. 
But  I  know  that  my  Vindicator  liveth 
And  that  he  shall  stand  up  at  the  last  upon  the  earth, 
And  after  my  skin  hath  been  thus  destroyed 
Yet  from  my  flesh  shall  I  see  God, 
Whom  I  shall  see  for  myself 
And  mine  eyes  shall  behold  and  not  another." 

This  great  confession  of  faith  has  usually 
been  supposed  to  refer  to  deliverance  in  a 
future  life,  and  this  may  be  the  meaning ; 


JOB  117 

but  It  seems  more  natural  to  me  to  interpret 
it  as  the  expectation  of  vindication  here. 
Even  though  the  loathsome  disease  from 
which  he  is  suffering  may  destroy  his  skin, 
yet  from  the  flesh  he  will  Lehold  the  ap- 
pearance of  God  as  his  vindicator. 

The  twenty-ninth,  thirtieth,  and  thirty-first 
chapters  contain  Job's  final  summing  up  of 
his  own  case.  He  looks  back  to  the  day 
when  he  was  loved  of  God  and  honored  of 
men  ;  he  contrasts  with  that  happy  fortune 
the  misery  and  contempt  into  which  he  is 
now  fallen,  and  then  he  utters  his  last  solemn 
and  splendid  assertion  of  his  own  blameless- 
ness  of  life.  As  Dr.  Driver  says :  "  The 
chapter  is  a  remarkable  one  ;  it  contains  the 
portrait  of  a  character  instinct  with  nobil- 
ity and  delicacy  of  feeling,  which  not  only 
repudiates  any  overt  act  of  violence  or 
wrong  but  also  disowns  all  secret  impulses 
to  impure  or  dishonorable  conduct."  This 
picture  which  Job  here  gives  us  of  his  own 
life  is  one  of  the  noblest  in  all  literature. 
It  is  the  likeness  of  a  gentleman,  a  noble- 
man, a  pure  and  blameless  knight  of  God  ; 
there  is  no  man  of  this  generation  who  could 
think  of  a  higher  honor  than  to  be  able  with 
truth  to  repeat  these  words  of  Job  :  — 


118        SEVEN   PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

*'  If  I  have  walked  with  vanity 
And  my  foot  hath  hasted  to  deceit  ; 

If  my  step  hath  turned  out  of  the  way 

And  mine  heart  walked  after  m^ine  eyes, 

And  if  any  spot  hath  cleaved  to  my  hands, 

Then  let  me  sow  and  another  eat, 

Yea  let  the  produce  of  my  field  be  rooted  out. 

If  I  did  despise  the  cause  of  my  manservant 

Or  my  maidservant  when  they  contended  with  me, 

What  then  shall  I  do  when  God  riseth  up  ? 

And  when  he  visiteth,  what  shall  I  answer  him  ? 

Did  not  he  that  made  me  in  the  womb  make  him  ? 

If  I  have  withheld  the  poor  from  their  desire, 
Or  have  caused  the  eyes  of  the  widow  to  fail. 
Or  have  eaten  my  morsel  alone 
And  the  fatherless  hath  not  eaten  thereof,  — 

If  I  have  seen  any  perish  for  want  of  clothing. 

Or  that  the  needy  had  no  covering  ; 

If  his  loins  have  not  blessed  me, 

And  if  he  were  not  warmed  with  the  fleece  of  my  sheep, 

If  I  have  lifted  up  my  hand  against  the  fatherless. 

Because  I  saw  my  help  in  the  gate ; 

Then  let  my  shoulder  fall  from  the  shoulder  blade, 

And  mine  arm  be  broken  from  the  bone. 

If  I  have  made  gold  my  hope, 

And  have  said  to  the  fine  gold.  Thou  art  my  confidence  ; 

If  I  rejoiced  because  my  wealth  was  great 

And  because  my  hand  had  gotten  much. 

If  I  beheld  the  sun  when  it  shined 

Or  the  moon  walking  in  brightness 

And  my  heart  hath  been  secretly  enticed. 

And  my  mouth  hath  kissed  my  hand. 

This  also  were  an  iniquity  to  be  punished  by  the  judges  : 


JOB  119 

For  I  should  have  lied  to  God  that  is  above. 

If  I  rejoiced  at  the  destruction  of  him  that  hated  me, 

Or  lifted  up  myself  when  evil  found  him  ; 

If  my  land  cry  out  against  me 

And  the  furrows  thereof  weep  together  ; 

If  I  have  eaten  the  fruits  thereof  without  money 

Or  have  caused  the  owners  thereof  to  lose  their  life  : 

Let  thistles  grow  instead  of  wheat 

And  cockle  instead  of  barley." 

At  tlie  conclusion  of  this  noble  speech  is 
the  simple  rubric  :  "  The  words  of  Job  are 
ended." 

Elihu,  who  seems  to  have  been  a  by- 
stander, now  steps  forth,  and  delivers  his 
judgment  on  this  weighty  theme.  "  Against 
Job,"  it  is  said,  "  his  wrath  was  kindled, 
because  he  justified  himself  rather  than 
God.  Also  against  his  three  friends  was 
his  wrath  kindled  because  they  had  foimd 
no  answer  [to  Job's  argument]  and  yet  had 
condemned  Job."  Speaking  thus,  in  his 
warmth,  Elihu  unfolds  his  theory,  which 
is  certainly  far  more  reasonable  than  that 
of  the  three  friends,  that  suffering  is  not 
always  punitive,  but  that  it  is  disciplinary ; 
not  penalty  but  chastening.  Mr.  Moulton 
in  his  analysis  divides  this  speech  into 
three  parts  :  in  the  first  he  puts  this  theory 
of  his  in  an  address  to  Job,  but  Job  does 


120        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

not  respond ;  then  he  turns  to  the  three 
friends,  and  seeks  their  approval,  but  they 
are  silent ;  then  he  looks  up  to  heaven  "  and 
finds  in  the  sky  a  fresh  text  for  the  great- 
ness of  God.  While  he  is  gazing  upon  it 
the  sky  shows  signs  of  change  and  the 
tokens  of  a  rising  storm  mingle  with  his 
words." 

Finally  out  of  the  storm  and  the  whirl- 
wind speaks  the  voice  of  God  in  one  of  the 
most  sublime  portrayals  of  the  wonder  and 
majesty  of  the  creation  that  has  ever  been 
uttered. 

"  Where  wast  thou  when  I  laid  the  foundation  of  the 

earth  ? 
Declare,  if  thou  hast  understanding. 

Who  determined  the  measures  thereof,  if  thou  knowest  ? 
Or  who  stretched  the  line  upon  it  ? 
Whereupon  were  the  foundations  thereof  fastened  ? 
Or  who  laid  the  corner  stone  thereof 
When  the  morning--stars  sang  together 
And  all  the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy  ? 

"  Or  who  shut  up  the  sea  with  doors 

When  it  brake  forth  and  issued  out  of  the  womb  ? 

When  I  made  the  cloud  the  garment  thereof 

And  thick  darkness  a  swaddling  band  for  it, 

And  prescribed  for  it  my  decree 

And  set  bars  and  doors 

And  said.  Hitherto  shalt  thou  come  but  no  further 

And  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed  ? 


JOB  121 

Hast  thou  commanded  the  morning-  since  thy  days  be- 
gan, 
And  caused  the  dayspring  to  know  its  place  ; 
That  it  might  take  hold  of  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
And  the  wicked  be  shaken  out  of  it  ? 

Hast  thou  entered  into  the  springs  of  the  sea  ? 
Or  hast  thou  walked  in  the  recesses  of  the  deep  ? 
Have  the  gates  of  death  been  revealed  unto  thee, 
Or  hast  thou  seen  the  gates  of  the  shadow  of  death  ? 
Hast  thou  comprehended  the  breadth  of  the  earth  ? 
Declare,  if  thou  knowest  it  all. 
Where  is  the  way  to  the  dwelling  of  light, 
And  as  for  darkness,  where  is  the  place  thereof ; 

Who  hath  cleft  a  channel  for  the  waterflood, 
Or  a  way  for  the  lightning  of  the  thunder. 
To  cause  it  to  rain  on  a  land  where  no  man  is, 
On  the  wilderness  where  there  is  no  man, 
To  satisfy  the  waste  and  desolate  ground. 
And  to  cause  the  tender  grass  to  spring  forth  ? 

Canst  thou  bind  the  cluster  of  the  Pleiades 

Or  loose  the  bands  of  Orion  ? 

Canst  thou  lead  forth  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac  in  their 

season  ? 
Or  canst  thou  guide  the  Bear  with  her  train  ? 
Knowest  thou  the  ordinances  of  the  heavens  ? 
Canst  thou  establish  the  dominion  thereof  in  the  earth  ? 
Oanst  thou  lift  up  thy  voice  to  the  clouds 
That  abundance  of  waters  may  cover  thee  ? 
Canst  thou  send  forth  lightnings  that  they  may  go. 
And  say  unto  thee,  Here  we  are  ?  " 

The  whole  recital  of  the  wonders  of  the 
creation  so  impresses  Job  with  the  wisdom 


122        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

and  greatness  of  the  Creator  that  he  is  awed 
into  silence  and  humility.  The  problem  of 
suffering  has  not  been  solved,  but  the  truth 
is  borne  into  his  mind  that  the  universe  is 
too  vast  for  a  mortal  to  criticise,  that  he  can 
comprehend  neither  its  evil  nor  its  good. 
The  conclusion  to  which  he  is  forced  is  that 
which  Carlyle  says  will  overpower  the  mind 
of  any  man,  if  he  will  stop  and  think  about 
it,  —  that  the  Creation  is  "  an  unspeakable, 
godlike  thing,  towards  which  the  best  atti- 
tude for  us,  after  never  so  much  science,  is 
awe,  devout  prostration,  and  humility  of  soul, 
—  worship,  if  not  in  words,  then  in  silence." 
And  this  is  really  the  lesson  of  the  book. 
Job's  friends  are  sharply  reproved  by  Jeho- 
vah, in  the  epilogue,  for  not  having  said 
about  him  the  thing  that  is  right ;  and  Job, 
though  rebuked  by  Jehovah  for  his  temerity 
in  challenging  the  divine  justice,  is  com- 
mended for  refusing  to  believe  that  the  suf- 
ferings of  men  are  always  a  sign  of  God's 
displeasure.  Why  good  men  suffer,  the 
book  does  not  tell  us ;  it  states  the  whole 
problem  with  wonderful  breadth,  but  it 
leaves  us  with  the  understanding  that  the 
reasons,  in  any  given  case,  are  apt  to  be 
shrouded  in  mystery ;  that  there  is  nothing 


JOB  123 

for  us  to  do  but  to  put  our  trust  in  the  infi- 
nite wisdom  and  goodness. 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  Divine  Wisdom 
is  represented  as  sweeping  aside  the  whole 
argument  of  the  thirty-five  preceding  chap- 
ters,—  not  only  the  theology  of  the  three 
friends,  but  in  large  part  also  Job's  answers. 
Of  course  much  truth  has  been  uttered  by 
all  these  speakers ;  many  wise  and  beautiful 
things  have  been  said  by  all  of  them,  for 
much  truth  may  be  uttered  in  support  of  a 
false  proposition  ;  it  is  true,  but  it  does  not 
apply  to  the  case  in  hand  ;  truth  is  stated,  but 
false  conclusions  are  drawn  from  it.  The 
three  friends  had  spoken  many  wise  words, 
and  Job  had  spoken  some  unwise  ones  ;  none 
of  them  was  wholly  right.  The  testimony 
of  Jehovah  declares  that  in  the  main  con- 
tention Job  has  been  nearer  right  than  his 
friends  have  been.  But  the  whole  contro- 
versy had  been  on  the  wrong  track  and  had 
failed  of  disentangling  the  truth.  If  the 
author  of  this  book  expresses  in  any  part  of 
it  the  mind  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  it  is  proba- 
ble that  he  expresses  it  in  the  words  which 
he  puts  into  the  mouth  of  Jehovah ;  and  if 
these  words  are  true,  the  thirty-five  chapters 
preceding  them  are  certainly  not  infallible 


124        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

teaching.  There  is  a  great  deal  that  is  true 
and  beautiful  in  them,  but  we  must  learn 
how  to  separate  the  truth  from  the  error 
with  which  it  is  mingled. 

The  great  lesson  of  the  book  is,  as  I  have 
said,  that  God's  ways  are  inscrutable  ;  that 
we  cannot  always  interpret  his  providences ; 
that  good  men  suffer  in  this  world  as  well  as 
evil  men ;  that  when  one  is  overtaken  by 
sudden  misfortune  we  have  no  right  to  con- 
clude that  God  is  angry  with  him,  or  that  he 
is  any  greater  sinner  than  his  prosperous 
neighbors. 

But  there  is  another  lesson  not  much  less 
important.  Professor  Moulton  states  it 
thus  :  "  The  strong  faith  of  Job  which  could 
even  reproach  God,  as  a  friend  reproaches 
a  friend,  was  more  acceptable  to  Him  than 
the  servile  adoration  which  sought  to  twist 
the  truth  in  order  to  magnify  God."  And 
Professor  Green  of  Princeton  thus  states  it : 
The  three  friends  "  had  really  inculpated 
the  providence  of  God  by  their  professed 
defense  of  it.  By  disingenuously  covering 
up  and  ignoring  its  enigmas  and  seeming 
contradictions  they  had  cast  more  discredit 
upon  it  than  Job  by  honestly  holding  them 
up  to  the  light.     Their  denial  of  its  appar- 


JOB  125 

ent  inequalities  was  more  untrue  and  more 
dishonoring  to  the  divine  administration,  as 
it  is  in  fact  conducted,  than  Job's  bold  affir- 
mation of  them." 

Wise  words  are  these,  sound  words,  per- 
tinent and  timely  words.  Lying  for  God 
is  a  poor  way  of  proving  your  loyalty  to 
Him. 

Does  not  the  same  principle  apply  to  the 
current  discussion  about  the  Bible  ?  Are  not 
those  who  are  "  disingenuously  covering  up 
and  ignoring  its  enigmas  and  seeming  con- 
tradictions "  casting  "  more  discredit  upon 
it  "  than  are  those  who  are  "  honestly  hold- 
ing them  up  to  the  light "  ?  Is  not  the  denial 
of  its  palpable  inaccuracies  and  human  ele- 
ments more  dishonorable  to  the  Bible  than 
the  bold  affirmation  of  them  ?  Is  it  not,  in 
short,  as  safe  to  tell  the  truth  about  God's 
book  as  about  God's  providence?  There 
are  those  who  suppose  that  they  are  showing 
their  reverence  for  the  Bible  by  quibbling 
and  evasion,  and  the  concealment  of  the 
truth.  But  the  Bible  itself,  through  the 
book  of  Job,  by  the  very  lips  of  the  Most 
High,  administers  to  these  shifty  defenders  a 
sharp  rebuke.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  they 
will  heed  it. 


126        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

I  am  conscious  that  I  have  given  to  this 
noble  book  but  a  lame  and  fragmentary 
treatment.  Very  little  of  its  beauty  and 
inspiration  have  I  been  able  to  bring  you ; 
for  though  these  words  are  largely  the  speech 
of  erring  men,  they  are  words  out  of  which 
we  can  draw  a  great  deal  of  divine  wisdom. 
The  whole  atmosphere  of  the  book  is  pure 
and  quickening  ;  how  different  from  that  of 
Esther  or  of  the  Judges  !  We  are  lifted  to 
a  lofty  plane  of  thought ;  we  are  confronted 
with  the  sublimest  realities ;  we  are  awed 
and  humbled  and  comforted.  One  can  quite 
assent  to  Carlyle's  strong  assertion  that 
"  there  is  nothing  written,  in  the  Bible  or 
out  of  it,  of  equal  literary  merit,"  and  the 
spiritual  power  is  not  less  than  the  literary 
beauty.  "  One  feels  indeed,"  he  says,  "  as 
if  it  were  not  Hebrew ;  such  a  noble  uni- 
versality, different  from  noble  patriotism  or 
sectarianism,  dwells  in  it.  A  noble  book; 
all  men's  book  !  It  is  our  first,  oldest  state- 
ment of  the  never-ending  problem  —  man's 
destiny,  and  God's  ways  with  him  here  on 
this  earth.  And  all  in  such  free,  flowing 
outlines ;  grand  in  its  sincerity,  in  its  sim- 
plicity, in  its  epic  melody  and  repose  of 
reconcilement.     There  is  the  seeing  eye,  the 


JOB  127 

mildly  understanding  heart.  So  true  every 
way  ;  true  eyesight  and  vision  for  all  things, 
material  things  no  less  than  spiritual;  the 
horse,  —  hast  thou  clothed  his  neck  with 
thunder?  he  laughs  at  the  shaking  of  the 
spear!  Such  living  likenesses  were  never 
since  drawn.  Sublime  sorrow,  sublime  re- 
conciliation ;  oldest  choral  melody  as  of  the 
heart  of  mankind,  —  so  soft  and  great ;  as 
the  summer  midnight,  as  the  world  with  its 
seas  and  stars."  ^ 

1  On  Heroes,  Lecture  II. 


ECCLESIASTES 

The  llebrew  name  of  the  book  of  Eccle- 
siastes  is  Koheleth,  It  is  derived  from  a 
verb  which  means  to  assemble,  to  call  to- 
gether ;  it  appears,  therefore,  to  have  some- 
thing to  do  with  a  congregation.  Some  of 
the  old  interpreters,  as  Luther,  conceived 
that  it  must  describe  the  presiding  officer  or 
teacher  of  the  congregation ;  hence  Luther 
called  the  Book  "  Prediger^^  or  Preacher,  — 
"  Der  Prediger  Salomo.''''  Our  old  version 
follows  this  rendering,  and  calls  Koheleth 
Ecclesiastes,  or  the  Preacher.  It  is  an  open 
question  whether  this  conveys  the  true  mean- 
ing of  the  Hebrew.  Perhaps  the  assembly 
alluded  to  meets  not  for  instruction,  but  for 
discussion ;  and  Koheleth  may,  as  Plumptre 
suggests,  mean  debater  or  reasoner,  rather 
than  preacher,  —  one  who  discusses  with 
some  philosophic  bent  the  great  question 
whether  life  is  worth  living. 

It  has  been  assumed  that  Ecclesiastes,  or 


ECCLESIA8TE8  129 

Koheleth,  is  King  Solomon.  That  was  tlie 
Jewish  tradition,  and  Christian  scholars  of 
a  former  day  generally  accepted  it.  One 
of  the  things,  however,  that  modern  scholar- 
ship has  found  out  is  that  Jewish  tradition 
is  not  always  trustworthy.  When  we  exam- 
ine the  reasons  given  in  the  ancient  Jewish 
writings  for  the  acceptance  of  these  tradi- 
tions, we  often  discover  that  they  are  base- 
less ;  they  rest,  in  many  instances,  on  the 
most  fantastic  and  whimsical  evidences. 
The  fact  that  Jewish  tradition  ascribes  the 
book  to  Solomon  is  not,  then,  conclusive 
evidence  that  he  wrote  it.  But  the  book 
itself,  it  is  said,  names  him  as  its  author. 
Its  first  sentence  is,  "The  words  of  Kohe- 
leth, the  son  of  David,  king  in  Jerusalem." 
No  other  son  of  David  but  Solomon  was 
ever  king  in  Jerusalem.  And  in  the  twelfth 
verse  of  the  first  chapter  we  read :  "I,  Ko- 
heleth, was  king  over  Israel  in  Jerusalem." 
This  explicit  testimony  of  the  writer,  it  is 
argued,  must  settle  the  question,  proving  that 
the  author  of  the  book  was  Solomon,  the  son 
of  David,  king  of  Jerusalem. 

But  the  speaker,  in  any  literary  work,  is 
not  always  the  writer.  David  Copperfield 
is  the  speaker  in  the  book  that  bears  that 


130        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

name,  but  the  book  was  not  written  by  Da- 
vid Copperfield.  Even  if  a  book  bears  the 
name  of  a  historical  person,  and  that  person 
is  represented  as  speaking,  we  do  not  always 
know  that  this  person  wrote  the  book.  Era 
Lippo  Lippi  is  a  historical  person;  I  have 
seen  pictures  that  he  painted ;  and  there  is 
a  poem  which  bears  his  name,  and  in  which 
he  is  represented  as  speaking,  but  he  did  not 
write  the  poem.  Eobert  Browning  wrote  it. 
The  same  is  true  of  many  poems  of  Brown- 
ing in  which  historical  persons  are  the  sole 
speakers,  —  Andrea  del  Sarto,  Saul,  Rabbi 
Ben  Ezra,  and  others.  And  a  more  signi- 
ficant instance  is  found  in  the  Apology 
of  Socrates,  familiar  to  most  of  us,  —  the 
death  song  of  one  of  the  noblest  spirits  that 
has  lived  on  the  earth.  This  apology  is  all  in 
the  first  person,  and  Socrates  is  the  speaker  ; 
but  the  writer  of  the  book  is  not  Socrates, 
it  is  Plato.  Doubtless  Plato  gives  us  the 
spirit  of  the  last  plea  of  Socrates,  but  it  is 
in  his  own  language.  Now  it  is  certainly 
possible  that  we  have  in  this  book  of  Eccle- 
siastes  an  example  of  this  form  of  literature, 
in  which  a  historical  person  is  made  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  author,  through  whom  he 
expresses  his  views  of  life. 


ECCLESIASTES  131 

In  the  case  of  this  book,  as  in  that  of  Job, 
a  crude  and  ignorant  literalism  has  obscured 
the  origin  of  the  book,  and  given  vogue  for 
centuries  to  theories  which  are  even  child- 
ishly erroneous.  It  has  been  asserted  that 
if  the  book  is  not  the  work  of  Solomon,  it  is 
a  literary  imposture.  But  Dean  Plumptre 
has  all  literature  behind  him  when  he  says : 
"  With  some  writers  of  the  highest  genius,  as 
with  Robert  Browning  or  Tennyson,  a  mon- 
ologue or  soliloquy  of  this  character  has 
been  a  favorite  form  of  composition.  The 
speeches  in  Herodotus  and  Thucydides,  the 
Apologies  written  in  the  name  of  Socrates 
by  Xenophon  and  Plato,  the  Dialogues  of 
Plato  throughout,  are  instances  in  which  no 
one  would  dream  of  imputing  fraud  to  the 
writers,  though  in  all  these  cases  we  have, 
with  scarcely  the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  the 
words  of  the  writers  and  not  of  the  men  whom 
they  represent  as  speaking.  The  most  de- 
cisive, and  in  that  sense  crucial  instance  of 
such  authorship  is  found,  however,  in  the 
book  which  presents  so  striking  a  parallel 
to  Ecclesiastes,  the  Apocryphal  '  Wisdom 
of  Solomon.'  There  also,  both  in  the  title 
and  the  body  of  the  book,  the  writer  identi- 
fies himself  with  the  Son  of  David.     It  was 


132        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

quoted  by  early  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers  as 
by  Solomon.  .  .  .  No  one  now  dreams  of 
ascribing  it  to  Solomon.  No  one  has  ever 
ventured  to  characterize  it  as  a  fraudulent 
imposture.  It  has  been  quoted  reverentially 
by  many  Protestant  writers,  cited  as  Scrip- 
ture by  many  of  the  Fathers,  placed  by  the 
Church  of  Kome  in  the  Canon  of  Scripture, 
and  recognized  by  Church  of  England  crit- 
ics as  entitled  to  a  high  place  of  honor 
among  the  books  which  they  receive  as  deu- 
tero-canonicaL"  ^ 

It  is  possible,  then,  to  regard  this  book  as 
the  work  of  some  later  author,  who  has 
chosen  to  put  his  own  thoughts  into  the 
mouth  of  Solomon.  Let  us  see  whether 
there  are  any  facts  which  support  this  hy- 
pothesis. 

If  Solomon  the  great  king  of  Israel  did 
write  this  book,  is  it  not  somewhat  strange 
that  in  all  the  books  of  the  Bible  written 
after  Solomon's  day  —  the  histories,  the 
books  of  the  prophets  —  there  is  not  a  single 
reference  or  allusion  to  it  ?  Does  it  not  seem 
probable  that  if  any  writings  of  their  great- 
est king  had  been  in  existence,  they  would 

1  "  Introduction  to  Ecclesiastes,"  in  Cambridge  Bible, 
pp.  20,  21. 


ECCLESIASTES  133 

have  been  known  to  these  prophets  and  his- 
torians, and  that  some  one  of  them  would 
have  been  apt  to  alkide  to  them  ?  But  you 
search  the  Old  Testament  in  vain  for  any 
reference  to  this  book.  "  Absolutely  the 
first  external  evidence  which  we  have  of  its 
existence,"  says  Dean  Plumptre,  "  is  found 
in  a  Talmudic  report  of  a  discussion  (dur- 
ing the  century  before  the  birth  of  Christ) 
between  the  two  schools  of  Hillel  and  of 
Schammai,  as  to  its  admission  into  the 
Canon  of  the  Sacred  Books.  It  was  debated 
under  the  singular  form  of  the  question 
whether  the  Song  of  Songs  and  Koheleth 
polluted  the  hands,  —  i.  e.  whether  they  were 
so  sacred  that  it  was  a  sacrilege  for  common 
or  unclean  hands  to  touch  them.  Some 
took  one  side,  some  another.  .  .  .  Different 
rabbis  held  different  opinions.  So  again 
another  Talmudic  tract  reports  that  the 
'  wise  men  wanted  to  declare  Koheleth  apoc- 
ryphal because  its  statements  contradicted 
each  other,'  —  and  that  they  did  so  because 
*  they  found  in  it  sentiments  that  tended  to 
infidelity.'  "  ^  Is  it  probable  that  a  book 
which  had  come  down  from  the  age  of  Solo- 
mon, with  the  clear  testimony  of  his  author- 
1  Op.  cit.,  p.  21. 


134       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

ship,  and  had  for  nine  centuries  been  attrib- 
uted to  him,  would,  in  the  century  before 
Christ,  have  been  attacked  and  challenged 
in  this  way  by  the  Jewish  rabbis  ?  As  Dr. 
Plumptre  says  :  "  Such  a  discussion,  in  such 
a  case,  would  have  been  an  example  of  a 
bold  criticism  which  has  no  parallel  in  the 
history  of  that  period  of  Jewish  thought." 

The  book  itself  contains  certain  state- 
ments which  are  inconsistent  with  the  the- 
ory of  a  Solomonic  authorship.  In  the  first 
chapter  we  read :  "  I,  Koheleth,  was  king 
over  Israel  in  Jerusalem."  How  could  Sol- 
omon have  written  that  ?  Was  there  a  time 
in  his  life  when  he  was  not  king  ?  "  The 
tense  of  the  verb  in  '  I  was  king  over  Israel ' 
can  only  carry  the  sense  '  I  was  king,  but  am 
king  no  more.'  "  ^  He  says  :  "  I  communed 
with  mine  own  heart,  saying,  Lo,  I  have  got- 
ten me  great  wisdom  above  all  that  were  be- 
fore me  in  Jerusalem.  .  .  .  Also  I  had  great 
possessions  of  herds  and  flocks  above  all 
that  were  before  me  in  Jerusalem."  But 
there  had  been  no  one  before  Solomon  in 
Jerusalem  except  his  father,  who  captured 
the  stronghold  and  held  it  during  his  reign. 
"  AH  "   is  a  strange  word  .for  Solomon   to 

^  Cox's  Ecclesiastes,  p.  15. 


ECCLESIASTES  135 

use  in  such  a  connection.  The  expression 
is  one  that  a  later  writer,  looking  back  on 
a  long  line  of  kings  who  had  reigned  in 
Jerusalem,  might  have  carelessly  used ; 
but  it  could  not  have  been  employed  by 
Solomon, 

Could  Solomon  have  written  this  ?  "  More- 
over I  saw  under  the  sun  in  the  place  of 
judgment,  that  wickedness  was  there  ;  and 
in  the  place  of  righteousness  that  wicked- 
ness was  there.  Then  I  returned,  and  saw 
all  the  oppressions  that  are  done  under  the 
sun  ;  and  behold  the  tears  of  such  as  were 
oppressed,  and  they  have  no  comforter ;  and 
on  the  side  of  their  oppressors  there  was 
power,  but  there  was  no  comforter."  Could 
a  powerful  monarch  have  spoken  in  this  bit- 
ter and  complaining  way  of  the  injustice 
and  oppression  which  were  going  on  in  his 
own  realm,  which  he  had  ample  power  to 
prevent,  and  which  it  was  his  duty  to  detect 
and  punish? 

The  whole  picture  of  society  in  this  book 
indicates  a  period  very  different  from  that 
of  the  golden  days  of  Solomon.  "  The  po- 
litical situation  described  in  the  book,"  says 
Plumptre,  "  the  hierarchy  of  officials,  the 
tyranny,  extortion,  and  corruption  of    pro- 


136       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

vinces,  the  supreme  authority  of  the  great 
king,  practically  issuing  in  the  despotism  of 
a  queen,  a  minister,  or  a  slave,  the  revelry 
and  luxury  of  the  court,  all  are  painted  with 
a  vividness  which  implies  experience  of  mis- 
government  such  as  that  which  meets  us 
in  Nehemiah  and  Esther,"  ^  in  the  days 
of  the  Persian  domination,  or  in  the  still 
later  days  of  the  Greek  tyranny.  "  The  au- 
thor of  Koheleth,"  says  Driver,  "  evinces 
no  kingly  or  national  feeling ;  he  lives  in  a 
period  of  political  servitude,  destitute  of  pa- 
triotism or  enthusiasm.  When  he  alludes 
to  kings  he  views  them  from  below,  as  one 
of  the  people  suffering  from  their  misride. 
His  pages  reflect  the  depression  produced 
by  the  corruption  of  an  Oriental  despotism, 
with  its  injustice,  its  capriciousness,  its  revo- 
lutions, its  system  of  spies,  its  hopelessness 
of  reform.  He  must  have  lived  when  the 
Jews  had  lost  their  national  independence 
and  formed  but  a  province  of  the  Persian 
Empire  ;  perhaps  even  later,  when  they  had 
passed  under  the  rule  of  the  Greeks.  But 
he  adopts  a  literary  disguise,  and  puts  his 
meditations  into  the  mouth  of  the  king 
whose  reputation  it  was  to  have  been  the 

1  Ecclesiastes,  p.  30. 


ECCLESIASTE3  137 

great  sage  and  philosopher  of  the   Hebrew 
race."  ^ 

These  are  probabilities  drawn  from  the 
book  itself,  which  tend  to  establish  its  late 
origin.  But  there  is  something  more  than 
probability.  The  Hebrew  scholars  tell  us 
that  the  book  could  not  have  been  written 
in  the  days  of  Solomon ;  that  the  forms  of 
the  language  forbid  the  supposition.  Words, 
idioms,  constructions  are  used  which  did  not 
exist  in  the  time  of  Solomon.  Those  who 
know  something  about  the  growth  of  their 
own  language  know  that  it  has  passed 
through  many  stages  of  development,  and 
that  there  are  great  differences  between  the 
early  and  the  modern  English.  Not  to  go 
back  to  Chaucer  and  Mandeville,  it  is  not 
difficult  for  those  who  are  not  great  scholars 
to  distinguish  the  English  of  Thomas  More 
and  Melville  and  Ascham  and  Spenser  and 
Sidney  from  that  of  Coleridge  and  Macaulay 
and  Arthur  Helps  and  Matthew  Arnold. 
One  of  these  later  writers  might  imitate  an 
earlier  one ;  but  one  of  the  earlier  ones 
could  by  no  means  have  written  in  the  style 
of  one  of  the  later  ones,  because  many  of 
the  words  used  by  these  later  ones  did  not 

1  Introduction,  p.  441. 


138        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

exist  in  the  times  of  the  earlier  ones,  and 
the  forms  of  many  of  the  words  used  by 
both  writers  have  greatly  changed,  and  syn- 
tatic  constructions  and  locutions  have  come 
into  vogue  in  later  times  which  the  earlier 
writers  never  heard.  If,  therefore,  Ruskin's 
''  Crown  of  Wild  Olive,"  or  Arnold's  "  On 
Translating  Homer,"  had  been  published 
first  in  England  with  the  name  of  Francis 
Bacon  or  Walter  Raleigh  appended,  and  with 
the  announcement  that  it  was  a  posthumous 
work  of  the  old  writer,  never  before  printed, 
any  fairly  bright  High  School  pupil  could 
have  told  you,  in  five  minutes,  that  the 
work  was  pseudepigraphic,  that  the  name 
had  been  feigned  ;  because  no  man  in  the 
sixteenth  century  could  have  written  that 
kind  of  English.  Now  it  is  by  evidence  of 
precisely  this  nature  that  the  Hebrew 
scholars  assure  us  that  the  book  of  Ecclesi- 
astes  could  not  have  been  written  during  the 
century  when  Solomon  lived.  Evidence  of 
this  kind  is  as  decisive  as  any  kind  of  evi- 
dence can  be.  Scholars  who  are  familiar 
with  the  development  of  linguistic  forms, 
when  they  come  upon  language  like  that  of 
the  Hebrew  of  Ecclesiastes,  are  just  as  sure 
that  it  did  not  originate  in  the  days  of  King 


I 


ECCLESIASTES  139 

Solomon  as  you  are  wlieu  you  see  a  Pull- 
man train  standing  at  the  station,  that  it 
was  not  built  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
It  is  by  such  facts  that  men  as  reverent  and 
devout  and  conservative  as  any  on  the  earth 
have  been  brought  to  the  conclusion  that 
Ecclesiastes  must  have  been  written  cer- 
tainly as  late  as  330  b.  c,  perhaps  as  late 
as  the  beginning  of  the  second  century  be- 
fore Christ.  Luther  came  to  this  conclusion 
long  ago  ;  and  modern  scholars  as  orthodox 
as  Hengstenberg,  Keil,  and  Delitzsch  are 
perfectly  certain  about  it.  "  Solomon  did 
not  write  the  book  himself,"  says  Luther, 
"  but  it  was  composed  by  Sirach  in  the 
time  of  the  Maccabees."  Professor  De- 
litzsch, who  is  the  most  conservative  of  all  the 
great  German  scholars,  says  :  "  If  the  Book 
of  Koheleth  be  of  old  Solomonic  origin,  then 
there  is  no  history  of  the  Hebrew  language." 
And  Dr.  Ginsburg,  a  great  Hebrew  authority, 
asserts  that  "  we  could  as  easily  believe  that 
Chaucer  is  the  author  of  Rasselas,  as  that 
Solomon  wrote  Koheleth." 

All  these  results,  you  will  observe,  are 
derived  from  a  careful  study  of  the  book  it- 
self. Instead  of  accepting  the  tradition  of 
the  Jews,  and  the  guesses  and  preconceived 


140       SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

theories  of  the  early  Fathers,  the  higher 
criticism  goes  directly  to  the  book  itself 
and  asks  it  to  reveal  its  own  secrets.  The 
expert  witness  holds  up  to  the  light  the 
pajjer  on  which  the  will  is  written,  and  dis- 
covers a  kind  of  veining  in  the  paper  which 
was  made  by  a  machine  that  was  not  invented 
until  after  the  date  of  the  will.  He  does 
not  guess,  he  knows,  that  that  date  is  wrong. 
The  document  itself  has  told  him  so.  Now 
there  are  water-marks  in  language,  as  well 
as  in  paper,  and  the  trained  philologist 
speaks  of  what  he  knows. 

As  to  the  date  at  which  the  book  was 
written  there  is,  then,  very  little  doubt  that 
it  must  have  been  nearly  seven  centuries 
after  the  death  of  Solomon,  certainly  no 
earlier  and  probably  later  than  the  time  of 
the  prophet  Malachi. 

What,  now,  is  the  teaching  of  the  book  ? 
That  is  perhaps  the  most  perplexing  question 
of  Biblical  interpretation.  There  is  no  book 
which  has  given  the  interpreters  more  trou- 
ble. Its  structure  appears  to  be  composite 
and  fragmentary ;  Luther's  saying,  "  It  is, 
as  it  were,  a  Talmud  put  together  out  of 
many  books,"  is  a  venture  in  the  right  di- 
rection.    Several  disconnected  essays,  inter- 


ECCLESIASTES  141 

spersed  with  proverbs,  are  thrown  together  ; 
perhaps  it  is  only  the  first  of  these,  occupy- 
ing the  first  chapter  and  part  of  the  second, 
that  the  author  wishes  to  put  into  the  mouth 
of  Solomon.  It  is  easier  to  interpret  the 
other  parts  of  the  book,  if  we  disconnect 
them  from  that  character. 

When  one  tries  to  understand  the  teach- 
ing of  the  book  as  a  whole,  he  is  confounded 
by  the  confusion  of  the  commentators.  Dr. 
Ginsburg,  in  the  "Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica,"  gives  us  a  few  of  the  interpretations  : 
"  We  are  positively  assured  that  the  book 
contains  the  holy  lamentations  of  Solomon, 
together  with  a  prophetic  vision  of  the  split- 
ting up  of  the  royal  house  of  David,  the 
destruction  of  the  temple,  and  the  captivity ; 
and  we  are  equally  assured  that  it  is  a  dis- 
cussion between  a  refined  sensualist  and  a 
sober  sage.  Solomon  publishes  in  it  his  re- 
pentance, to  glorify  God  and  strengthen  his 
brethren  ;  he  wrote  it  *  when  he  was  irreli- 
gious and  skeptical,  during  his  amours  and 
idolatry.'  '  The  Messiah,  the  true  Solomon, 
who  was  known  by  the  title  of  Son  of  David, 
addresses  this  book  to  the  saints  ; '  a  profli- 
gate, who  wanted  to  disseminate  his  infa- 
mous sentiments,  palmed  it  upon  Solomon. 


142        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

It  teaches  us  to  despise  the  world  with  all 
its  pleasures,  and  flee  to  monasteries ;  it 
shows  that  sensual  gratifications  are  man's 
greatest  blessings  upon  earth.  It  is  a  philo- 
sophic lecture  addressed  to  a  literary  society 
upon  subjects  of  the  greatest  moment ;  it  is 
a  medley  of  heterogeneous  fragments  belong- 
ing to  various  authors  and  different  ages. 
It  describes  the  beautiful  order  of  God's 
moral  government,  showing  that  all  things 
work  together  for  good  to  them  that  love  the 
Lord  ;  it  proves  that  all  is  disorder  and  con- 
fusion, and  that  the  world  is  the  sport  of 
chance.  It  is  a  treatise  on  the  summum 
honum  ;  it  is  a  chronicle  of  the  lives  of  the 
kings  of  the  house  of  David,  from  Solomon 
down  to  Hezekiah.  Its  object  is  to  prove 
the  immortality  of  the  soul ;  its  design  is  to 
deny  a  future  existence.  Its  aim  is  to  com- 
fort the  unhappy  Jews  in  their  misfortunes  ; 
and  its  sole  purport  is  to  pour  forth  the 
gloomy  imaginations  of  a  melancholy  misan- 
thrope. It  is  intended  to  open  Nathan's 
speech  touching  the  eternal  throne  of  David, 
and  it  propounds  by  anticipation  the  modern 
discoveries  of  anatomy  and  the  Harveian 
theory  of  the  circulation  of  the  blood.  '  It 
foretells  what  will  become  of  man  or  angels 


ECCLESIASTES  143 

to  eternity,  and  according  to  one  of  the 
latest  and  greatest  authorities,  it  is  a  keen 
satire  on  Herod,  written  8  b.  c,  when  the 
king  cast  his  son  Alexander  into  prison.' " 

Such  an  assortment  of  explanations  may 
indicate  that  it  is  not  an  easy  book  to  under- 
stand. Those  who  propose  to  take  the 
whole  Bible  just  as  it  reads  will  be  obliged 
to  put  their  intellects  through  a  good  many 
contortions  before  they  get  through  with 
this  book.  The  Jewish  rabbis  in  the  Synod 
of  Jamnia  who  wished  to  reject  it  from  the 
Canon  on  the  ground  that  it  contradicted 
itself  had  some  reason  for  their  criticism. 
The  book  is  not  self-consistent.  The  author 
was  living  in  a  very  dark  day.  His  nation's 
hope  was  almost  extinguished  ;  the  foreigner 
had  devastated  its  fields  and  sacked  its  cities 
and  carried  its  people  into  exile  ;  the  long- 
cherished  expectations  of  Messianic  glory 
were  hopes  deferred  that  made  the  heart 
sick.  There  is  so  much  of  failure  and  dis- 
appointment and  misery  round  about  him 
that  he  is  driven  to  take  a  very  gloomy  view 
of  life.  He  doubts  if  the  great  kings,  even, 
find  any  profit  in  all  their  splendor  ;  the 
objects  for  which  men  are  striving  appear  to 
him  nothing  but  emptiness. 


144        SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

"Vanity  of  vanities,  saith  the  preacher, 
all  is  vanity.  What  profit  hath  man  of  all 
his  labor  wherein  he  laboreth  under  the  sun  ? 
One  generation  goeth  and  another  genera- 
tion Cometh,  and  the  earth  abideth  forever. 
The  sun  also  ariseth,  and  the  sun  goeth 
down,  and  hasteth  to  his  place  where  he 
ariseth.  The  wind  goeth  toward  the  south, 
and  turneth  about  unto  the  north ;  it  turn- 
eth  about  continually  in  its  course,  and  the 
wind  returneth  again  to  its  circuits.  All 
the  rivers  run  into  the  sea,  yet  the  sea  is 
not  full ;  unto  the  place  where  the  rivers  go, 
thither  they  go  again.  All  things  are  full 
of  weariness ;  man  cannot  utter  it ;  the  eye 
is  not  satisfied  with  seeing,  nor  the  ear  filled 
with  hearing.  That  which  hath  been  is  that 
which  shall  be,  and  that  which  hath  been 
done  is  that  which  shall  be  done  ;  and  there 
is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun."  Life  is  a 
weary  round,  a  treadmill,  —  roads  that  lead 
nowhither,  aims  that  mock  our  endeavor, 
fruits  that  turn  to  ashes  on  our  lips.  Vanity 
of  vanities,  all  is  vanity. 

Then  he  brings  in  Solomon,  and  makes 
him  tell  of  his  great  acquisitions  and  ac- 
cumulations and  triumphs,  and  how  little 
they  are  worth  after  all.     It  is  all  vanity. 


ECCLESIASTES  145 

Men  strive  after  wisdom,  but  what  is  the 
use  of  wisdom  ?  the  gains  thereof  are  real 
gains,  no  doubt,  but  they  are  brief :  the  wise 
man  dies  as  the  fool  dies. 

Nor  is  the  pursuit  of  pleasure  any  more 
satisfactory.  "  All  the  labor  of  man  is  for 
his  mouth,  and  yet  his  appetite  is  not  filled." 
We  toil  to  gather  riches,  but  who  knows 
who  will  inherit  them  ? 

He  turns  to  religion  and  its  institutions, 
but  they  seem  to  him  full  of  insincerity  and 
emptiness :  much  of  this  worship  is  the 
sacrifice  of  fools  ;  there  are  too  many  words 
and  there  is  too  little  meaning. 

He  turns  to  politics,  and  the  corruption 
and  oppression  of  the  rulers  and  the  syco- 
phancy of  courtiers  fill  him  with  disgust. 
In  the  midst  of  all  these  illusions  he  betakes 
himself  to  bitter  cynicism :  — 

"  In  my  fleeting-  days  I  have  seen 
Both  the  righteous  die  in  his  rig-hteonsness 
And  the  wicked  live  long  in  his  wickedness ; 
Be  not  too  righteous  therefore, 
Nor  make  thyself  too  wise  lest  thou  be  abandoned. 
Be  not  very  wicked,  nor  yet  very  foolish, 
Lest  thou  die  before  thy  time  : 
It  is  better  that  thou  shouldest  lay  hold  of  this, 
And  also  not  lay  hold  of  that ; 
For  whoso  feareth  God  will  take  hold  on  both. 
Their  wisdom  alone  Is  greater  strength  to  the  wise 


146        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

Than  an  army  to  a  beleaguered  city  ; 
For  there  is  not  a  righteous  man  on  earth 
Who  doeth  good  and  sinneth  not."  ^ 

The  very  cautious  and  conservative  com- 
mentator whose  translation  I  have  quoted 
thus  paraphrases  this  passage :  — 

"  He  has  seen  both  the  righteous  die  in 
his  righteousness  without  receiving  any  re- 
ward from  it,  and  the  wicked  live  long  in 
his  wickedness  to  enjoy  his  ill-gotten  gains. 
And  from  these  two  mysterious  facts,  which 
much  exercised  many  of  the  Prophets  and 
Psalmists  of  Israel,  he  infers  that  a  prudent 
man  will  neither  be  very  righteous,  since  he 
will  gain  nothing  by  it  and  may  lose  the 
friendship  of  those  who  are  content  with 
the  current  morality ;  nor  very  wicked, 
since,  though  he  may  lose  little  by  this  as 
long  as  he  lives,  he  will  very  surely  hasten 
his  death.  It  is  the  part  of  prudence  to  lay 
hold  on  both ;  to  permit  a  temperate  indul- 
gence both  in  virtue  and  vice,  carrying  nei- 
ther to  excess,  —  a  doctrine  still  very  dear  to 
the  mere  man  of  the  world.  In  this  tem- 
perance there  lies  a  greater  strength  than 
that  of  an  army  in  a  beleaguered  city  ;  for 
no  righteous  man  is  wholly  righteous  (vs. 
1  Chap.  vii.  15-20,  Cox's  Translation. 


ECCLESIASTES  147 

19-20)  ;  to  aim  at  so  lofty  an  ideal  will  be 
to  attempt  '  to  wind  ourselves  too  high  for 
mortal  man  below  the  sky ; '  we  shall  only 
fail  if  we  make  the  attempt ;  we  shall  be 
grievously  disappointed  if  we  expect  other 
men  to  succeed  where  we  have  failed ;  we 
shall  lose  faith  in  them  and  in  ourselves ; 
we  shall  suffer  many  pangs  of  shame,  re- 
morse, and  defeated  hope  ;  and,  therefore, 
it  is  well  at  once  to  make  up  our  mind  that 
we  are  and  need  be  no  better  than  our 
neighbors ;  that  we  are  not  to  blame  our- 
selves for  customary  and  occasional  slips ; 
that,  if  we  are  but  moderate,  we  may  lay 
one  hand  on  righteousness  and  another  on 
wickedness  without  taking  much  harm.  A 
most  immoral  moral,  though  it  is  as  popular 
to-day  as  ever  it  was."  ^ 

In  this  vein  of  cynicism,  Koheleth  turns 
his  glass  toward  womankind,  with  this  re- 
sult :  — 

*'  Then  I  and  my  heart  turned  to  know  this  wisdom 
And  diligently  examine  it, 
To  discover  the  cause  of  wickedness,  vice. 
And  that  folly  which  is  madness  ; 
And  I  found  woman  more  bitter  than  death ; 
She  is  a  net ; 
Her  heart  is  a  snare  and  her  hands  are  chains  ; 

1  Ojj.  cit.,  p.  200. 


148       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

Whoso  is  g-oocl  before  God  shall  escape  her, 

But  the  sinner  shall  be  taken  by  her. 

Behold  what  I  have  found,  saith  the  Preacher,  — 

Taking  things  one  by  one  to  reach  the  result  — 

I  have  found  one  man  among  a  thousand, 

But  in  all  that  number  a  woman  I  have  not  found."  ^ 

Any  man  who  can  say  all  this  of  his  mo- 
ther, his  sister,  his  wife,  his  daughter,  is  in 
a  mood  from  which  we  may  all  pray  to  be 
delivered. 

"  All  is  vanity  and  a  striving  after  wind !  " 
This  is  the  unending  refrain.  And  what 
makes  life  seem  so  unreal  and  phantasmal 
is  the  feeling  that  death  ends  it  all :  — 

"  Yet  I  said  to  my  heart  of  the  children  of  men 
God  hath  sifted  them. 

To  show  that  they,  even  they,  are  but  as  beasts. 
For  a  mere  chance  is  man.  and  the  beast  a  mere  chance, 
And  they  are  both  subject  to  the  same  chance  ; 
As  is  the  death  of  the  one  so  is  the  death  of  the  other ; 
And  both  have  the  same  spirit ; 
And  the  man  hath  no  advantage  over  the  beast, 
For- both  are  vanity  ; 
Both  go  to  the  same  places ; 
Both  sprang  from  dust  and  both  turn  into  dust ; 
And  who  knoweth  whether  the  spirit  of  man  goeth  up- 
ward. 
Or  the  spirit  of  the  beast  goeth  downward? 
Wherefore  I  saw  that  there  is  nothing  better  for  man 
Than  to  rejoice  in  his  labors, 
For  this  is  his  portion." 

1  Op.  cit.,  chap.  vi.  25-28. 


ECCLESIASTES  149 

"  Thus,"  saj^s  Samuel  Cox,  whose  transla- 
tion of  this  passage  I  have  quoted,  "after 
risino:  in  the  first  fifteen  verses  of  this  third 
chapter  to  an  almost  Christian  height  of 
patience  and  resignation  and  holy  trust  in 
the  providence  of  God,  Koheleth  is  smitten 
by  the  injustice  and  oppression  of  man  into 
the  depths  of  a  pessimistic  materialism."  ^ 

It  was  this  ghastly  and  chilling  skepticism 
that  robbed  life  of  its  significance.  Koheleth 
had  lost  the  strong  hope  of  his  countrymen 
in  the  triumph  of  good  upon  the  earth. 
That  had  always  been  their  confidence.  Life 
beyond  the  grave  was  not  the  common  expec- 
tation of  Old  Testament  saints  and  prophets. 
The  immortality  which  they  looked  for  was  a 
coi'porate  immortality,  —  the  continuance  of 
their  nation  and  their  life  in  that.  But  Ko- 
heleth had  come  to  despair  of  the  Messianic 
kingdom,  and  he  had  not  yet  gained  a  sure 
hold  of  the  hope  of  personal  immortality 
which  his  people  brought  back  from  Persia. 
Perhaps  he  hated  the  Persians  too  fiercely 
to  be  willing  to  believe  a  doctrine  which  they 
were  teaching. 

Thus  he  stands  on  that  desolate  theologi- 
cal watershed   which  divides  the  old  hope 

1  Ecclesiastes,  p.  148. 


150       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

from  the  new ;  the  one  he  has  lost,  and  the 
other  he  has  not  found.  His  dark  mood 
reflects  this  uncertain  grasp  of  the  future. 

"  No  doubt,'*  says  Dr.  Driver,  "  he  would 
have  judged  human  nature  less  despairingly- 
had  he  possessed  a  clear  consciousness  of  a 
future  life.  But  the  revelation  of  a  future 
life  was  only  accomplished  gradually ;  and 
though  there  are  passages  in  the  prophets 
which  contain  this  truth  in  germ,  and  though 
the  intuition  of  it  is  expressed  at  certain 
sublime  moments  by  some  of  the  Psalmists, 
yet  these  passages  altogether  are  few  in 
number,  and  the  doctrine  formed  no  part  of 
the  established  creed  of  an  ancient  Israelite. 
Koheleth  shares  only  the  ordinary  old  He- 
brew view  of  a  shadowy  half -conscious  exist- 
ence in  Sheol ;  he  does  not  believe  in  a  life 
hereafter  in  the  sense  in  which  the  apostles 
of  Christ  believed  it."  ^ 

You  think,  doubtless,  of  those  passages  in 
which  he  speaks  of  retribution.  "  Know 
thou  that  for  all  these  things  God  will  bring 
thee  to  judgment;"  "  God  shall  bring  every 
work  into  judgment  with  every  hidden  thing, 
whether  it  be  good  or  evil."  But  we  must 
beware  of  reading  our  New  Testament  ideas 

1  Introduction,  p.  443. 


ECCLESIASTES  151 

into  all  this  phraseology.  The  judgment 
of  which  he  is  thinking  is  probably  the  pro- 
vidential retribution  of  this  life,  not  of  the 
next. 

That  passage  in  which  he  speaks  of  the 
dust  returning  to  the  earth,  and  the  spirit 
to  the  God  who  gave  it,  seems  to  us  to  inti- 
mate his  expectation  of  future  existence.  It 
does  not  agree  with  what  he  has  said  in  an 
earlier  chapter :  "  Who  knoweth  the  spirit 
of  man  whether  it  goeth  upward,  and  the 
spirit  of  the  beast  whether  it  goeth  down- 
ward to  the  earth?"  Is  this  a  later  and 
more  hopeful  mood?  Do  we  here  discern 
the  triumph  of  faith  over  skepticism  ?  The 
question  is  not  without  difficulty,  but  I  in- 
cline to  this  opinion.  The  prevailing  mood 
of  the  writer  is  one  of  doubt  and  despair, 
but  there  are  gleams  of  faith  and  hope. 
It  is  not  quite  fair  to  call  him  a  pessimist, 
for  his  faith  in  God  does  not  forsake  him. 
More  than  once,  in  these  dismal  moods, 
there  comes  into  his  soul  a  flash  of  seonian 
light.  Sometimes  he  is  inclined  to  take  the 
epicurean  view  of  life,  "  Let  us  eat  and  drink, 
for  to-morrow  we  die ; "  but  the  sobering 
thought  overtakes  him  that  even  these  joys 
of  the  sense  are  the  gifts  of  God  and  cannot 


152        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

profit  us  without  his  blessing.  "  Every 
man  also  to  whom  God  hath  given  riches 
and  wealth  and  hath  given  him  power  to  eat 
thereof,  and  to  take  his  portion  and  to  re- 
joice in  his  labor,  —  this  is  the  gift  of  God." 
"  Though  a  sinner  do  evil  a  hundred  times, 
and  prolong  his  days,  yet  surely  I  know  that 
it  shall  be  well  with  them  that  fear  God." 
These  are  the  voices  of  faith  which  are  heard 
from  time  to  time,  above  the  monotonous 
outcries  of  doubt,  and  the  cynical  counsels 
of  hedonism. 

On  the  whole,  then,  I  think  we  may  re- 
gard this  book  as  the  picture  of  the  struggle 
of  a  soul,  in  one  of  the  darkest  periods  of 
the  world's  history,  with  its  own  doubts  and 
fears.  The  prevailing  tendency  of  most  of 
these  moralizings  is  skeptical  and  hopeless ; 
the  writer  feels  that  life  is  all  a  miserable 
tangle,  yet  he  holds  fast  to  his  belief  that 
"  God 's  in  his  heaven,"  and  it  brings  him 
round  to  a  hope,  if  not  a  confidence,  that 
somehow,  some  time,  it  must  be  "  all  right 
with  the  world."  No  man  who  believes  in 
a  living  God  can  be  altogether  a  pessimist. 
And  I  do  not  see  how  he  can  continue  to 
doubt  the  continuance  of  life  after  death. 
This,  as  I  believe,  is  the  more  sure  word  of 


ECCLESIASTES  153 

promise  to  which  tliis  writer  comes  at  tlie 
end.  Let  us  hear  the  solemn  words  with 
which  he  closes  :  — 

"  Remember  thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy  youth, 

Before  the  evil  days  come, 

And  the  years  approach  of  which  thou  shalt  say 

I  have  no  pleasure  in  them  ; 

Before  the  sun  groweth  dark, 

And  the  light  and  the  moon  and  the  stars, 

And  the  clouds  return  after  the  rain  : 

When  the  keepers  of  the  house  shall  quake, 

And   the  grinding-maids  shall  stop  because  so  few  are 

left, 
And  the  women  who  look  out  of  the  lattices  shall  be 

shrouded  in  darkness, 
And  the  sound  of  the  mills  shall  cease, 
And  the  swallow  fly  shrieking  to  and  fro. 
And  all  the  song-birds  drop  silently  into  their  nests. 
There  shall  be  terror  at  that  which  cometh   from  the 

height. 
And  fear  shall  beset  the  highway ; 
The  almond  also  shall  be  rejected 
And  the  locust  be  loathed 
And  the  caper-berry  provoke  no  appetite  ; 
Because  man  goeth  to  his  long  home, 
And  the  mourners  pace  up  and  down  the  street ; 
Before  the  silver  cord  snappeth  asunder 
And  the  golden  bowl  escapeth  ; 
Before  the  pitcher  be  shattered  at  the  fountain 
And  the  wheel  is  broken  at  the  well ; 
And  the  body  is  cast  into  the  earth  from  which  it  came, 
And  the  spirit  retumeth  to  God  who  gave  it."  ^ 

1  Ecdesiastes,  Cox's  Translation,  p.  107. 


VI 

THE  SONG  OF  SONGS 

"  The  Song  of  Songs,  which  is  Solo- 
mon's," is  the  title  of  that  book  of  the  Bible 
which  ranks  next  to  Ecclesiastes  in  difficulty 
of  interpretation.  Indeed,  there  are  many 
who  would  readily  yield  to  this  book  the  palm 
on  the  score  of  obscurity.  The  first  sentence 
of  Mr.  Adeney's  recent  admirable  commen- 
tary, in  the  Expositor's  Bible  Series,  is  this : 
"The  Song  of  Solomon  is  a  puzzle  to  the 
commentator."  The  category  in  which  we 
have  put  it  thus  appears  to  be  justified.  It 
is  a  poem  which  gives  expression  in  strains 
of  great  intensity  and  beauty  to  the  passion 
of  love,  —  the  love  of  man  and  woman,  which 
has  always  been  the  central  theme  of  novel 
and  lyric  and  drama.  On  the  face  of  it 
there  is  no  indication  of  any  religious  pur- 
pose ;  there  is  not  a  word  about  worship  or 
prayer,  or  any  relation  between  man  and 
God  ;  the  name  of  the  Most  High  is  only 
mentioned   in   one    phrase  which   describes 


THE   SONG    OF   SOXGS  155 

jealousy  as  "  a  very  flame  of  the  Lord,"  — 
and  that,  perhaps,  is  no  more  than  a  famil- 
iar Hebrew  figure  of  speech,  —  a  metaphor 
for  something  very  hot.  For  all  that  ap- 
pears to  the  casual  reader,  or  even  to  the 
careful  student,  this  is  simply  a  song  or 
souses  of  human  love.  If  it  were  not  in  the 
Bible,  no  other  interpretation  of  it  would 
even  have  been  dreamed  of. 

The  question  about  the  literary  form  of 
the  book  has  been  much  discussed.  "  There 
are  indications,"  says  Mr.  Adeney,  "  that  it 
is  a  continuous  poem  ;  and  yet  it  is  char- 
acterized by  startling  kaleidoscopic  changes 
that  seem  to  break  it  up  into  fragments. 
If  it  is  a  single  work,  the  various  sections  of 
it  succeed  one  another  in  the  most  abrupt 
manner,  without  any  connecting  links  or  ex- 
planatory clauses.  The  simplest  way  out  of 
the  difficulty  presented  by  the  many  curious 
terms  and  changes  of  the  poem  is  to  deny  it 
any  structural  unity,  and  treat  it  as  a  string 
of  independent  lyrics.  That  is  to  cut  the 
knot  in  a  rather  disappointing  fashion."  ^ 
For  my  own  part,  I  find  it  difficult  to  accept 
in  their  entirety  any  of  the  critical  explana- 
tions of  the  form  of  the  poem  which  have 

1  Commentary,  p.  3. 


156        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

yet  been  offered.  It  possesses  a  certain 
continuity  ;  the  heroine,  the  beautiful  Shu- 
lamite,  appears  in  every  scene,  and  her 
character  is  consistent  throughout ;  but  when 
we  attempt  to  break  up  the  poem  into  parts, 
and  assign  to  each  its  appropriate  character, 
the  difficulties  are  very  great. 

Still,  the  overwhelming  majority  of  the 
scholars  agree  that  we  have  in  the  book  a 
dialogue,  carried  on  by  two  or  more  speakers. 
The  fact  that  no  names  are  given,  and  that 
the  changes  of  person  are  not  marked,  is  no 
evidence  that  the  form  is  not  dramatic.  In 
many  of  Mr.  Browning's  dramatic  lyrics, 
the  persons  speaking  suddenly  change ;  the 
only  indication  of  the  change  is  quotation 
marks,  and  of  that  device  the  Hebrew  writer 
could  not  avail  himself.  In  some  of  the 
Psalms  we  have  two  or  more  speakers,  with 
no  indication  but  the  sense  of  the  language 
of  a  change  from  one  to  another.  In  this 
poem  it  is  evident  that  we  have  several 
speakers.  The  transition  from  the  mascu- 
line to  the  feminine  gender,  and  from  the 
singular  to  the  plural  number,  make  this 
plain.  What  we  seem  to  have,  therefore, 
is  a  kind  of  operetta,  in  which  the  principal 
characters,  two  or  three  in  number,  sing  to 


THE   SONG    OF  SONGS  157 

each  other  songs  of  love,  very  fervid  and 
beautiful ;  and  in  which  certain  other  char- 
acters or  groups  of  characters,  choruses, 
perhaps,  now  and  then  join.  The  persons 
named  in  it  are  the  Shulamite,  a  rustic 
maiden  apparently  from  the  North  Country, 
and  King  Solomon.  To  some  of  the  inter- 
preters it  appears  that  another  character, 
who  plays  an  important  part,  is  introduced. 
The  main  question  among  modern  scholars 
is  whether  the  dramatis  personce  include 
this  third  character,  or  whether  the  parts  by 
some  critics  assigned  to  him  are  spoken  by 
King  Solomon. 

The  theory  of  the  book  for  which  Profes- 
sor Delitzsch  is  chiefly  responsible  finds  in 
the  poem  but  two  principal  characters.  King 
Solomon  and  the  Shulamite  maiden.  The 
king  has  found  her  and  is  about  to  raise  her 
to  the  throne  ;  the  book  begins  with  her 
introduction  to  the  palace  at  Jerusalem, 
and  consists  of  a  description  of  the  wedding 
festivities,  with  exchanges  of  passionate 
protestation  between  the  royal  lover  and  the 
rustic  maiden,  and  now  and  then  a  response 
by  the  ladies  of  the  court  and  other  charac- 
ters acting  as  chorus. 

According  to  the  other  modern    theory, 


158       SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

suggested  first  by  Jacobi,  and  developed  by 
Ewald, "  there  are,"  in  the  words  of  Dr. 
Driver,  "three  principal  characters,  Solo- 
mon, the  Shulamite  maiden,  and  her  shep- 
herd lover.  A  beautiful  Shidamite  maiden, 
surprised  by  the  king  and  his  train  on  a 
royal  progress  in  the  north,  has  been  brought 
to  the  palace  in  Jerusalem,  where  the  king 
hopes  to  win  her  affections,  and  to  induce  her 
to  exchange  her  rustic  home  for  the  honor 
and  enjoyments  which  a  court  life  could 
afford.  She  has,  however,  already  pledged 
her  heart  to  a  young  shepherd ;  and  the  ad- 
miration and  blandishments  which  the  king 
lavishes  upon  her  are  powerless  to  make  her 
forget  him.  In  the  end  she  is  permitted  to 
return  to  her  mountain  home,  where,  at  the 
close  of  the  poem,  the  lovers  appear  hand  in 
hand,  and  express  in  warm  and  glowing 
words  the  superiority  of  genuine,  spontane- 
ous affection  over  that  which  may  be  pur- 
chased by  wealth  or  rank." 

Such  are  the  two  modern  theories  of  the 
structure  of  this  poem.  Before  we  compare 
them,  it  will  be  well  to  consider  some  of 
the  older  interpretations.  The  last  chapter 
contains  a  succinct  resume  of  various  ex- 
planations of  Ecclesiastes ;  the  tale   of  the 


THE   SONG   OF  SONGS  159 

interpretations  of  the  Song  of  Solomon  is 
even  longer.  The  Jewish  commentators  pro- 
duced a  great  variety  of  explanations,  more 
or  less  mystical  and  allegorical,  finding  in 
the  poem  all  sorts  of  occult  meanings ;  and 
Christian  exegetes,  following  hard  after 
them,  have  gTeatly  extended  the  list.  In 
"  Who  Wrote  the  Bible  ?  "  Dean  Farrar's 
summary  of  these  interpretations  is  quoted, 
and  it  may  be  well  to  repeat  it  here  as  an 
instance  of  the  way  in  which  the  book  has 
been  handled :  — 

"  It  represents,  say  the  commentators,  the 
love  of  the  Lord  for  the  congregation  of 
Israel ;  it  relates  the  history  of  the  Jews 
from  the  exodus  to  the  Messiah ;  it  is  a  con- 
solation to  afflicted  Israel ;  it  is  an  occult 
history  ;  it  represents  the  union  of  the  di- 
vine soul  with  the  earthly  body ;  or  of  the 
material  with  the  active  intellect ;  it  is  the 
conversation  of  Solomon  and  Wisdom  ;  it 
describes  the  love  of  Christ  to  his  Church  ; 
it  is  historico-prophetical ;  it  is  Solomon's 
thanksgiving  for  a  happy  reign ;  it  is  a  love- 
song  unworthy  any  place  in  the  sacred  canon ; 
it  treats  of  man's  reconciliation  to  God ;  it 
is  a  prophecy  of  the  Church  from  the  cruci- 
fixion until  after  the  Reformation ;  it  is  an 


160        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

anticipation  of  the  Apocalypse ;  it  is  the 
seven  days'  epithalamium  on  the  marriage  of 
Solomon  with  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh  ;  it 
is  a  magazine  for  direction  and  consolation 
under  every  condition ;  it  treats  in  hiero- 
glyphics of  the  sepulchre  of  the  Saviour, 
his  death,  and  the  Old  Testament  saints ; 
it  refers  to  Hezekiah  and  the  ten  tribes ;  it 
is  written  in  glorification  of  the  Virgin 
Mary."  ^  Such  is  the  fruit  of  the  allegoriz- 
ing tendency.  When  the  human  imagina- 
tion is  let  loose  upon  a  piece  of  literature 
like  this  with  the  idea  of  finding  some  occult 
meaning  in  it,  it  is  capable  of  yielding  some 
very  fantastic  results. 

This  tendency  to  allegorize  was  developed 
among  the  Jews  in  the  centuries  just  before 
Christ,  and  was  taken  up  by  some  of  the 
Christian  fathers  who  followed  the  apostles. 
Some  of  these  early  teachers,  both  Jewish 
and  Christian,  were  able  to  find  the  most 
subtle  and  mysterious  meanings  in  the  most 
commonplace  statements  of  the  Bible.  Thus 
Philo  tells  us  that  in  the  text,  "  With  my 
staff  I  passed  over  the  Jordan,"  Jordan 
means  baseness,  and  the  staff  means  disci- 
pline ;  so  that  Jacob  must  be  interpreted  as 

^  History  of  Interpretation,  p.  32. 


THE   SONG    OF  SONGS  161 

saying,  "  By  discipline  I  triumph  over  base- 
ness." By  "  the  green  herb  of  the  field," 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  we  must  un- 
derstand that  portion  of  the  mind  which  is 
perceptible  only  by  intellect.  The  verse 
"  God  did  not  rain  upon  the  earth "  signi- 
fies that  God  did  not  grant  perception  to 
the  senses.  In  the  farewell  address  of  Moses, 
where  he  speaks  of  the  plenty  of  the  promised 
land  which  the  people  are  to  enjoy,  —  great 
and  goodly  cities,  houses  full  of  all  good 
things,  cisterns  hewn  out,  and  vineyards  and 
olive-trees,  —  we  are  told  that  cities  mean 
"  general  virtues,"  and  houses  "  special  vir- 
tues," and  wells  ''  noble  dispositions  toward 
wisdom,"  and  vineyards  and  olive-trees 
"  cheerfulness  and  light."  So  in  later  days 
Origen  explains  that  the  six  water-pots  of 
stone  in  the  miracle  at  Cana  signify  that  the 
world  was  made  in  six  days ;  and  that  the 
two  or  three  firkins  apiece  which  they  held 
indicate  the  moral  and  literal  and  sometimes 
spiritual  sense  of  the  words  of  Scripture ; 
also,  that  in  the  incident  of  Palm  Sunday, 
the  ass  represents  the  Old  Testament,  the 
ass's  colt  the  New  Testament,  and  the  two 
disciples  sent  to  untie  them  are  the  moral 
and   the   mystic   senses ;    while   Methodius 


162        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

wishes  us  to  believe  that  the  calf,  the  goat, 
and  the  ram  of  three  years  offered  by  Abra- 
ham in  sacrifice  were  his  soul,  his  sentient 
faculty,  and  his  mind. 

We  need  not  greatly  wonder  that  teachers 
like  these  —  and  the  church  was  full  of 
them  —  were  able  to  turn  the  Song  of  Songs 
into  endless  allegories.  With  the  growth 
of  learning,  much  of  this  fantastic  inter- 
pretation dropped  away;  but  one  or  two 
leading  conceptions  persisted  and  still  per- 
sist, and  the  book  in  most  quarters  is  even 
now  supposed  to  be  an  allegory.  In  the 
allegorical  interpretations  the  chief  charac- 
ters are  commonly  supposed  to  be  two ;  one 
of  these  interpretations  makes  the  book 
symbolical  of  the  relation  of  God  to  the 
believing  soul  ;  another,  and  the  most  com- 
mon one,  makes  it  symbolize  the  love  of 
Christ  for  his  Church.  King  Solomon,  in 
the  drama,  is  supposed  to  represent  Christ, 
and  the  Shulamite  maiden  the  Church ;  the 
rapturous  songs  of  love  express,  as  in  a  fig- 
ure, the  spiritual  and  divine  affection  be- 
tween the  Church  and  her  Lord. 

Some  color  is  given  to  this  interpretation 
by  those  passages  in  the  Revelation  which 
speak  of  the  Church  as  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's 


THE   SONG    OF   SONGS  163 

wife,  and  also  by  certain  words  in  Paul's 
epistles,  in  which  he  adopts  the  same  sym- 
bolism. And  it  must  be  admitted  that  many 
devout  men  in  all  ages  have  read  this  mean- 
ing into  the  words  of  this  old  song,  and  have 
found  consolation  and  help  in  the  thought 
that  the  relation  of  the  Lord  to  his  people 
could  be  expressed  in  its  tender  words. 

Still,  the  allegorical  interpretation  is  one 
that  nearly  all  devout  scholars  of  the  pre- 
sent day  have  abandoned.  The  reasons  for 
rejecting  it  are  obvious  enough. 

In  the  first  j)lace,  there  is  not  a  sign  or  a 
hint  anywhere  in  the  poem  that  the  writer 
intended  us  to  take  it  in  a  mystical  sense. 
An  allegory  must  disclose  its  purpose.  It 
need  not  tell  us  in  plain  words  that  it  is  so 
intended  ;  something  a  little  less  frank  than 
the  devices  of  Snug  the  Joiner  and  Snout 
the  Tinker  and  Flute  the  Bellows-mender 
wiU  serve ;  but  the  hidden  meaning  must 
be  always  shining  through  the  symbol ;  the 
structure  of  the  allegory  must  clearly  reveal 
what  it  coyly  conceals.  "  These  allegories," 
says  Robertson  Smith,  "  are  never  without 
internal  marks  of  their  allegorical  design. 
The  language  of  symbol  is  not  so  perfect 
that  a  long  chain  of  splendid  ideas  can  be 


164        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

developed  without  the  use  of  a  single  spirit- 
ual word  or  phrase  ;  and  even  were  this  pos- 
sible, it  would  be  false  art  in  the  allegorist 
to  hide  away  his  sacred  thoughts  behind  a 
screen  of  sensuous  and  erotic  imagery  so 
complete  and  beautiful  in  itself  as  to  give 
no  suggestion  that  it  is  only  the  vehicle  of  a 
deeper  sense.  Apart  from  tradition,  no  one, 
in  the  present  state  of  exegesis,  would  dream 
of  allegorizing  poetry  which  in  its  natural 
sense  is  so  full  of  purpose  and  meaning,  so 
apt  in  sentiment,  and  so  perfect  in  imagery 
as  the  lyrics  of  Canticles.  We  are  not  at 
liberty  to  seek  for  allegory,  except  when  the 
natural  sense  is  incomplete.  This  is  not  the 
case  in  the  Song  of  Solomon.  On  the  con- 
trary, every  form  of  the  allegorical  inter- 
pretation which  has  been  devised  carries  its 
own  condemnation  in  the  fact  that  it  takes 
away  from  the  artistic  unity  of  the  poem 
and  breaks  natural  sequences  of  thought." 

Take  any  allegory  with  which  you  are 
familiar,  and  you  will  see  at  once  that  the 
symbolism  is  transparent.  There  is  no  pos- 
sibility of  mistaking  the  spiritual  intent  of 
the  story,  the  general  drift  of  the  teaching. 
You  are  not  long  in  doubt  when  you  begin  to 
read  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  as  to  what  kind 


THE   SONG    OF  SONGS  165 

of  literature  you  are  reading,  and  what  it 
means.  You  know  that  Bunyan  is  giving 
you  in  these  flesh-and-blood  forms  a  kind  of 
mask,  in  which  he  wishes  to  disclose  spirit- 
ual facts.  But  this  poem  gives  no  indica- 
tion of  allegorical  intention,  and  the  list  of 
interpretations  which  I  have  given  to  you 
shows  that  if  the  writer  was  trying  to  convey 
any  particular  spiritual  truth,  he  has  met 
with  very  indifferent  success. 

In  the  second  place,  if  the  book  were  an 
allegory  representing  the  relations  of  Christ 
to  his  Church,  it  would  seem  that  either 
Christ  himself  or  some  of  the  apostles  would 
have  been  likely  to  refer  to  it.  Paul  made 
use  of  this  very  conception  of  the  Church 
as  the  spouse  of  Christ ;  but  he  does  not 
allude  to  this  book,  nor  is  there  any  refer- 
ence to  it  in  the  New  Testament. 

In  the  third  place,  an  interpretation  which 
makes  the  addition  of  one  more  inmate  to 
the  harem  of  that  royal  rake.  King  Solomon, 
the  type  of  the  spiritual  affection  between 
Christ  and  his  Church  is  one  of  dubious 
moral  quality.  The  character  of  this  king, 
as  it  is  set  before  us  in  the  history,  is  not 
one  that  we  can  complacently  accept  as  a 
type  of   the  pure  and  undefiled  Nazarene. 


166        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

"Now  King  Solomon  loved  many  strange 
women,"  says  the  record,  "  besides  the  daugh- 
ter of  Pharaoh ;  .  .  .  and  he  had  seven  hun- 
dred wives,  princesses,  and  three  hundred 
concubines ;  and  his  wives  turned  away  his 
heart."  If  we  make  allowance  here  for  con- 
siderable Oriental  arithmetic,  the  tradition 
still  abides  that  this  man  was  one  of  the 
coarsest  and  most  wanton  voluptuaries  of 
history.  The  theory  that  he  was  reformed 
through  his  love  for  a  rustic  maiden,  and 
that  this  poem  recites  the  circumstances  of 
his  reformation,  is  one  for  which  there  is  no 
historical  foundation.  "  Solomon,  the  son  of 
David,  with  all  his  wisdom,  played  the  fool. 
The  foremost  man  and  Hebrew  of  his  time, 
he  gave  his  heart  to  '  strange  women,'  and  to 
gods  whose  ritual  was  not  only  idolatrous, 
but  cruel,  dark,  impure.  In  his  pursuit  of 
science,  unless  the  whole  East  belie  him,  he 
ran  into  secret  magical  arts,  incantations, 
divinations,  an  occult  intercourse  with  the 
powers  of  ill.  In  all  ways  he  departed  from 
the  God  who  had  enriched  him  with  the 
choicest  gifts,  and  sank,  through  luxury, 
extravagance,  and  excess,  first  into  a  j)re- 
mature  old  age,  and  then  into  a  death  so  un- 
relieved by  any  sign  of   penitence  or  any 


J 


THE   SOXG    OF  SONGS  167 

promise  of  amendment  that  from  that  day 
to  this  rabbis  and  divines  have  discussed  his 
final  doom,  many  of  them  leaning  to  the 
darker  alternative.     This 

*  uxorious  king,  whose  heart,  though  large, 
Beguiled  by  fair  idolatresses,  fell 
To  idols  foul,' 

is  the  Solomon  of  history."  ^ 

The  natural  basis  of  the  allegory,  if  Solo- 
mon and  the  Shulamite  are  the  only  charac- 
ters represented,  is  the  addition  of  one  more 
favorite  to  the  seven  hundred,  more  or  less, 
of  Solomon's  harem.  There  are  flattering 
promises  that  she  shall  be  preferred  above 
the  rest,  but  this  scarcely  changes  the  char- 
acter of  the  man,  nor  of  the  transaction. 

A¥e  may  admit  that  polygamy  of  this 
wholesale  sort  was  not,  to  the  people  of  the 
ninth  century  before  Christ,  so  monstrous 
a  thing  as  it  is  to  us  ;  but  if  we  have  here 
a  divinely  inspired  book,  the  inspiration 
which  created  it  must  have  known  that  the 
day  would  come  when  such  a  character  as 
that  of  Solomon  would  be  egregiously  unfit 
to  typify  the  blessed  Christ.  No  matter  in 
what  colors  this  song  might  paint  him,  his 
dark  record  stands  upon  the  pages  of  the 

1  Ecclesiastes,  by  Samuel  Cox,  p.  18. 


168        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

Book  of  Kings ;  and  I  decline  to  believe 
that  the  Spirit  of  truth  and  wisdom  ever 
selected  him  to  represent  in  allegory  the 
blameless  Nazarene,  or  that  the  transaction 
represented  in  this  theory  of  the  poem  can 
fitly  symbolize  to  us  the  relation  between 
Christ  and  his  Church. 

Another  consideration  has  weight  with 
me.  That  devout  souls  have  read  their 
own  devotion  to  Christ  into  these  fervid 
words,  I  have  admitted.  But  it  is  also  true 
that  the  use  of  this  book  as  an  allegory  has 
often  imparted  to  religious  speech  a  sickly 
sentimentalism  which  is  fatal  to  all  genuine 
manly  and  womanly  piety.  The  terms  in 
which  these  lovers  address  each  other  are 
not  terms  in  which  believers  can  profitably 
hold  fellowship  with  their  Lord.  The 
erotic  religiousness  which  has  found  its 
excuse  in  the  allegorical  interpretation  of 
this  book  has  often  been  a  very  disgusting 
thing.  Some  of  the  hymns  in  which  this 
kind  of  sentiment  has  found  expression  are 
offensive  to  all  right  feeling. 

The  reasoning  which  condemns  the  alle- 
gorical interpretation  also  obliges  us  to  set 
aside  that  otlier  modern  interpretation 
which  makes  this  the  celebration  of  a  love 


THE   SONG   OF  SONGS  169 

affair  between  King  Solomon  and  the  Shu- 
lamite  maiden.  I  should  like  to  believe  that 
this  book  has  some  ethical  uses,  and  I  doubt 
whether  the  marital  or  morganatic  relations 
of  King  Solomon  to  any  woman  on  the  earth 
can  be  profitably  considered  in  any  kind  of 
literature,  no  matter  how  exquisite  may  be 
the  poetic  drapery  in  which  the  corrup- 
tion is  clad.  It  is  true  that  the  advocates 
of  this  theory  try  to  show  that  the  royal 
rake  was  purified  by  this  experience  ;  but, 
as  I  have  said,  the  history  is  silent  about 
any  such  reformation  ;  and  the  foundation 
which  the  poem  gives  us  for  such  a  theory 
is  very  insecure. 

Accordingly  I  am  constrained  to  adopt 
the  theory  of  the  book  to  which  the  great 
name  of  Ewald  has  been  given,  and  which 
is  adopted  by  Oettli,  and  Driver,  and  Rob- 
ertson Smith,  and  Adeney,  and  our  own  Dr. 
Griffis.  This  is  what  is  known  as  "  the 
shepherd  hypothesis,"  by  which  the  dia- 
logue is  distributed  among  three  principal 
characters,  one  of  whom  is  the  shepherd 
lover  of  the  Shulamite  maiden,  from  whom 
she  has  been  torn  and  transported  to  the 
court  of  Solomon  ;  to  whom,  in  spite  of  all 
the    blandishments   of    the    kinof   and    the 


170     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

temptations  of  the  court,  she  remains  faith- 
ful, and  to  whom  she  returns  in  the  last 
scenes  rejoicing  in  deliverance  from  gilded 
infamy,  and  exultant  in  the  consummation  of 
an  unpurchasable  and  inextinguishable  love. 
That  there  are  difficulties  in  this  interpre- 
tation I  do  not  deny ;  it  is  not  easy  to  fit  all 
the  parts  of  the  dialogue  to  this  scheme ; 
nevertheless  the  dramatic  and  psychological 
improbabilities  are  perhaps  no  greater  by 
this  interpretation  than  by  the  other,  and 
the  moral  anomalies  are  certainly  much  less. 
Understanding  the  book  in  this  way,  it  does 
seem  to  yield  us  a  noble  and  beautiful  mean- 
inof.  There  will  still  be  Orientalisms  with 
which  we  must  reckon  ;  the  frankness  of  the 
speech  of  these  lovers  is  not  according  to 
modern  etiquette ;  the  book  cannot  all  be 
read  aloud  profitably  in  any  company ;  and 
we  can  see  some  wisdom  in  the  ancient  Jew- 
ish regulation  that  it  was  not  to  be  put  into 
the  hands  of  any  one  under  thirty  years  of 
age ;  still,  with  the  signification  which  we 
are  now  considering,  it  is  not  an  impure 
book ;  the  fervent  passion  to  which  it  gives 
utterance  is  one  of  the  strongest  and  highest 
principles  in  human  nature ;  and  the  lesson 
which  it  teaches  ennobles  human  life. 


THE   SONG    OF   SONGS  171 

I  cannot  undertake  the  analysis  of  tins 
poem  ;  if  any  of  you  care  to  study  its  struc- 
ture, to  see  how  its  dialogue  is  distributed 
among  these  characters,  you  may  find  in 
Dr.  Griffis's  little  book  ''The  Lily  among 
Thorns  "  a  popular  arrangement  of  its  parts. 

Nor  woukl  it  be  possible,  as  I  have  inti- 
mated, to  quote  from  it  at  length.  Although, 
in  the  words  of  Mr.  Adeney,  "  a  poem  that 
contains  these  principles  must  be  allowed  to 
have  an  important  mission  in  the  world,  it 
does  not  follow  that  it  is  suitable  for  public 
or  indiscriminate  reading.  The  fact  that  the 
key  to  it  is  not  easily  discovered  is  a  warn- 
ing:  that  it  is  liable  to  be  misunderstood. 
When  it  is  read  superficially,  without  any 
comprehension  of  its  drift  and  motive,  it 
may  be  perverted  to  mischievous  ends.  The 
antique  Oriental  pictures  with  which  it 
abounds,  though  natural  to  the  circumstances 
of  its  origin,  are  not  in  harmony  with  the 
more  reserved  manners  of  our  own  condi- 
tions of  society.  As  all  the  books  of  the 
Bible  are  not  of  the  same  character,  so  they 
are  not  all  to  be  used  in  the  same  way."  ^ 

As  poetry  the  book  takes  a  very  high 
rank.  "The  movement,"  says  Dr.  Driver, 
1  Commentary,  p.  59. 


172        SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

"  is  graceful  and  light ;  the  imagery  is  beau- 
tiful and  singularly  picturesque  ;  the  author 
revels  among  the  delights  of  the  country; 
one  scene  after  another  is  brought  before 
us,  —  doves  hiding  in  the  clefts  of  the  rocks, 
or  resting  beside  the  water-brooks ;  gazelles 
leaping  over  the  mountains  or  feeding  among 
the  lilies ;  goats  reclining  on  the  sloping 
sides  of  Gilead ;  trees  with  their  varied  foli- 
age, flowers  with  bright  hues  or  richly-scented 
perfume  are  ever  supplying  the  poet  with  a 
fresh  picture  or  comparison ;  we  seem  to 
walk  with  the  shepherd  lover  himself  among 
vineyards  and  fig-trees  in  the  balmy  air  of 
spring  or  to  see  the  fragrant,  choicely  fur- 
nished garden  which  the  charms  of  his  be- 
trothed call  up  before  his  imagination."  ^ 

This  lovely  song  of  the  springtime,  for 
example,  has  woven  its  music  and  its  color 
through  all  the  world's  literature.  It  is 
supposed  to  be  the  maiden's  reminiscence  of 
her  own  betrothal  to  the  shepherd :  — 

"  The  voice  of  my  beloved !  behold  he  cometli, 
Leaping  upon  the  mountains,  skipping  upon  the  hills. 
My  beloved  is  like  a  gazelle  or  a  young  hart : 
Behold,  he  standeth  behind  our  wall, 
He  looketh  in  at  the  windows, 
He  glanceth  through  the  lattice. 

^  Introduction,  p.  420. 


THE   SONG    OF  SONGS  173 

My  beloved  spake  and  said  unto  me, 

Rise  up,  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away. 

For  lo,  the  winter  is  past, 

The  rain  is  over  and  gone ; 

The  flowers  appear  on  the  earth. 

The  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  is  come, 

And  the  voice  of  the  turtle  is  heard  in  our  land ; 

The  fig  tree  ripeneth  her  green  figs 

And  the  vines  are  in  blossom ; 

They  give  forth  their  fragrance. 

Arise,  my  love,  my  fair  one,  and  come  away !  " 

And  these  words  also,  with  which  the 
rural  pair  depart  from  the  palace  to  their 
home  in  the  North  Country,  and  the  maiden 
avows  the  purity  and  intensity  of  her  invio- 
lable love,  are  memorable  for  their  beauty  : 

"  I  am  my  beloved's, 

And  his  desire  is  toward  me. 

Come,  my  beloved,  let  us  go  forth  into  the  field, 

Let  us  lodge  in  the  villages. 

Let  us  get  up  early  into  the  vineyards  ; 

Let  us  see  whether  the  vine  hath  budded  and  its  blos- 
som be  open, 

And  the  pomegranates  be  in  flower : 

There  will  I  give  thee  my  love. 

The  love  apples  give  forth  fragrance, 

And  over  our  doors  are  all  manner  of  precious  fruits, 
new  and  old, 

Which  I  have  laid  up  for  thee,  0  my  beloved. 

Set  me  as  a  seal  upon  thine  heart,  as  a  seal  upon  thine 

arm: 
For  love  is  strong  as  death. 
Jealousy  is  cruel  as  Sheol : 


174     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

The  flashes  thereof  are  flashes  of  fire, 

A  very  flame  of  the  Lord. 

Many  waters  cannot  quench  love, 

Neither  can  the  floods  drown  it : 

If  a  man  would  give  all  the  substance  of  his  house  for 

love 
He  would  utterly  be  contemned." 

From  a  girl  who  has  flung  a  palace  in  the 
face  of  a  king,  these  words  are  not  without 
meaning. 

The  poem  has,  then,  for  me,  a  deep  signi- 
ficance ;  it  is  the  celebration  and  glorifica- 
tion of  that  pure  passion  of  love  which  is 
the  deepest  thing  in  human  life,  and  which 
ought  to  be  regarded  always  as  one  of  the 
most  sacred  things.  It  is  neither  an  acci- 
dent, nor  a  morbid  perversion  of  human 
thought  which  has  given  to  this  great  theme 
a  place  so  central  in  all  literature  ;  it  is  love 
or  the  lack  of  it  which  makes  or  mars  most 
human  lives.  "  What  is  so  old  as  love- 
making,"  asks  Mr.  Adeney,  "  and  what  so 
fresh  ?  At  least  ninety-nine  novels  out  of 
a  hundred  have  a  love-story  for  plot ;  and 
the  hundredth  is  always  regarded  as  an  ec- 
centric experiment.  The  pedant  may  plant 
his  heel  on  the  perennial  flower,  but  it  will 
spring  up  again  as  vigorous  as  ever.  This  is 
the  poetry  of  the  most  commonplace  exist- 


THE   SONG    OF  SONGS  175 

ence.  When  it  visits  a  clingy  soul  the  desert 
blossoms  as  the  rose.  Life  may  be  hard  and 
its  drudgery  a  grinding  yoke ;  but  with  love 
'  all  tasks  are  sweet.'  '  And  Jacob  served 
seven  years  for  Rachel  and  they  seemed  unto 
him  but  a  few  days,  for  the  love  he  had  to 
her.'  That  experience  of  the  patriarch  is 
ty|3ical  of  the  magic  power  of  true  love  in 
every  age,  in  every  clime.  To  the  lover  it 
is  always  '  the  time  of  the  singing  of  birds.' 
Who  shall  tell  the  value  of  the  boon  that 
God  has  given  so  freely  to  mankind,  to 
sweeten  the  lot  of  the  toiler  and  shed  mu- 
sic into  his  heart  ?  But  this  boon  requires 
to  be  jealously  guarded  and  sheltered  from 
abuse,  or  its  honey  will  be  turned  into  gall. 
It  is  for  the  toiler,  —  the  shepherd  whose 
locks  are  wet  with  the  dew  that  has  fallen 
upon  him  while  guarding  his  flock  by  night, 
the  maiden  who  has  been  working  in  the 
vineyard ;  it  is  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
pleasure-seeking  monarch  and  the  indolent 
ladies  of  his  court.  This  boon  is  for  the 
pure  in  heart ;  it  is  utterly  denied  to  the 
sensual  and  the  dissolute.  Finally,  it  is  re- 
served for  the  loyal  and  true  as  the  peculiar 
reward  of  constancy."  ^ 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  58. 


176      SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

Is  this  the  meaning  of  the  poem  ?  If  it 
is,  then  we  need  not  look  for  allegorical  in- 
terpretations or  mystic  symbolisms  ;  the 
simple  story  that  the  poem  tells  is  full  of 
highest  and  divinest  signification.  If  the 
Bible  has  given  us  a  book  which  teaches  us 
this  pure  and  ennobling  lesson,  there  is  a 
deep  and  true  sense  in  which  we  may  re- 
gard that  book  as  having  been  given  by  in- 
spiration of  God. 


VII 

DANIEL 

The  book  o£  Daniel  has  played  a  large 
part  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  church. 
Probably  no  other  book  in  the  Bible  has 
been  so  much  interpreted  ;  it  has  furnished 
the  expounders  of  millennial  theology  with  a 
large  part  of  their  material ;  century  after 
century  its  enigmatic  numbers  have  been 
calculated  and  recalculated  to  make  them  fit 
the  schemes  of  the  prophets  who  distinctly 
saw  the  end  of  the  world  drawing  nigh.  I 
remember  as  well  as  if  it  were  yesterday  a 
blackboard  hanging  in  the  pulpit,  on  which 
some  of  these  figures  in  Daniel  were  added 
and  subtracted  by  the  preacher,  showing 
with  the  precision  of  mathematics  that  the 
world  must  come  to  an  end  in  1843.  That 
was  the  date  at  which  we  were  then  living. 
And  1  remember  well  the  chilling  fear 
which  fell  upon  the  heart  of  a  child  at  the 
sight  of  these  ominous  figures,  a  fear  which 
was  never  lifted  till  the  sun  rose  bright  and 


178     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

clear  on  New  Year's  Day,  1844.  That 
blessed  morning  banished  many  terrors,  and 
loosened  the  grip  of  uncanny  sujierstition. 
I  have  heard  the  ravens  croak,  ever  since, 
with  considerable  equanimity. 

The  apocalyptical  numbers  in  this  book  of 
Daniel  lend  themselves  to  the  mystic  specu- 
lators about  future  events.  There  is  one 
particular  term  of  seventy  weeks  at  the  end 
of  which  something  is  to  happen  ;  and  it  is 
explained  that  these  are  weeks  of  years, 
whatever  that  may  mean.  Seventy  weeks 
are  four  hundred  and  ninety  days  ;  and  the 
commentators  have  generally  supposed  that 
each  day  in  this  reckoning  was  a  year.  But 
when  this  period  begins  nobody  knows ; 
some  say  at  the  captivity,  some  at  the  de- 
struction of  Jerusalem,  some  at  the  death 
of  Christ ;  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  world 
to  hinder  anybody  from  putting  the  termi- 
nus a  quo  at  the  time  of  the  battle  of  Wa- 
terloo or  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims,  and 
then  looking  out  for  something  veryjmpor- 
tant  to  happen  at  the  end  of  four  hundred 
and  ninety  years  from  that  time.  The  de- 
termination to  find  in  these  numbers  some- 
thing of  deep  prophetic  significance  has 
racked  the  brains  and  unsettled  the  reason 


DANIEL  179 

of  great  multitudes  of  Christians  ;  and  all 
this  speculation  and  calculation  and  prog- 
nostication lands  us  in  the  middle  of  No- 
where. "  So  tar,"  says  Farrar,  "  from  find- 
ing any  agreement  in  the  opinions  of  the 
Christian  Fathers  and  commentators  on  the 
subject,  we  only  find  ourselves  weltering  in 
a  chaos  of  uncertainties  and  contradic- 
tions." ^  It  would  seem  that  such  a  result 
might  have  suggested,  before  this  time,  that 
the  attempt  to  deal  with  these  symbols  as 
prophetic  might  as  well  be  abandoned  ;  that 
some  other  explanation  of  their  meaning 
might  as  well  be  sought. 

The  first  six  chapters  of  this  book  are 
written  in  the  third  person,  and  the  remain- 
ing six  chapters  in  the  first  person.  The  first 
part  of  the  book  is  about  Daniel ;  the  sec- 
ond part  seems  to  be  written  by  Daniel. 
The  change  from  the  third  to  the  first  person 
is  explained  by  some  commentators  on  the 
supposition  that  in  the  earlier  chapters  we 
have  extracts  from  the  diary  of  Daniel  and 
that  in 'the  later  chapters  he  describes  his 
own  visions.  If  we  have  here  a  historical 
work,  Daniel  was  a  Jew  who  lived  at  Babylon 
in  the  reign  of  Nebuchadrezzar  (in  this  book 

1  The  Book  of  Daniel  p.  06. 


180      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

erroneously  called  Nebuchadnezzar) ;  and 
who  became  by  far  the  most  conspicuous 
personage  under  the  king  in  the  whole 
realm.  In  the  words  of  Dean  Farrar,  "  If 
we  accept  as  historical  the  particulars  nar- 
rated of  him  in  this  book,  it  is  clear  that 
few  Jews  have  ever  risen  to  so  splendid  an 
eminence.  Under  four  powerful  kings  and 
conquerors,  of  three  different  nationalities 
and  dynasties,  he  held  a  position  of  high 
authority  among  the  haughtiest  aristocracies 
of  the  ancient  world.  At  a  very  early  age 
he  was  not  only  a  satrap  but  the  prince  and 
prime  minister  over  all  the  satraps  of  Baby- 
lonia and  Persia;  not  only  a  magian  but 
the  head  magian,  and  chief  governor  over 
all  the  wise  men  of  Babylon.  Not  even 
Joseph  as  the  chief  ruler  over  all  the  house 
of  Pharaoh  had  anything  like  the  extensive 
sway  exercised  by  the  Daniel  of  this  book. 
He  was  placed  by  Nebuchadrezzar  '  over  the 
whole  province  of  Babylon ; '  under  Darius 
he  was  president  of  the  Board  of  Three,  to 
whom  all  the  satraps  sent  their  accounts  ; 
and  he  was  continued  in  office  and  prosper- 
ity under  Cyrus  the  Persian."  ^ 

Such  a  mighty  man  as  this  should  leave  a 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  4. 


DANIEL  181 

large  mark  upon  all  history,  sacred  and  pro- 
fane. We  have  considerable  history  of  these 
times,  on  ancient  monuments  and  inscrip- 
tions ;  we  know  much  about  the  great  mon- 
archs  and  their  great  deeds  ;  but  of  Daniel 
no  hint  is  given  in  any  of  these  historical 
sources. 

In  the  Old  Testament,  outside  of  this 
book,  the  name  of  Daniel  is  mentioned  by 
only  one  author,  the  prophet  Ezekiel,  who 
must  have  been  his  contemporary.  Twice 
Ezekiel  uses  the  name  of  Daniel.  In  one 
passage,  where  he  is  addressing  the  Prince 
of  Tyre,  he  says  :  "  Behold  thou  art  wiser 
than  Daniel ;  there  is  no  secret  that  they 
can  hide  from  thee."  In  another  passage, 
threatening  destruction  against  Jerusalem, 
the  proj^het  declares  that  "  though  these 
three  men,  Noah,  Daniel,  and  Job  were  in  it, 
they  should  deliver  but  their  own  souls  by 
their  righteousness  ;  "  "  they  shall  deliver 
neither  son  nor  daughter."  These  references 
to  Daniel,  in  the  Book  of  Ezekiel,  are  very 
perplexing.  When  Ezekiel  wrote  these 
words  Daniel  must  have  been  a  young  man, 
perhaps  not  more  than  twenty-one  or  twenty- 
two  years  of  age,  certainly  not  much  more 
than  thirty ;  and  such  a  man  to  a  Jew  would 


182     SEVEN-  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

seem  a  mere  youth  ;  why  Ezekiel  should  put 
him  between  two  ancient  patriarchs,  like 
Noah  and  Job,  we  cannot  understand.  It 
would  be  as  if  a  writer  of  to-day,  wishing  to 
mention  three  of  our  most  renowned  and 
most  revered  statesmen,  should  speak  of 
George  Washington,  Theodore  Roosevelt, 
and  John  Adams.  It  would  seem  a  little  in- 
congruous to  put  a  contemporary,  no  matter 
how  upright  and  honorable,  into  such  a  jux- 
taposition with  two  ancient  worthies.  The 
natural  inference  would  be  that  the  Daniel 
of  whom  Ezekiel  spoke  was  some  hero  of 
the  faith  who  had  lived  long  before  his 
day. 

If,  however,  as  some  explain,  the  amazing 
eminence  of  Daniel,  as  described  in  this 
book,  entitled  him  to  be  ranked  in  this  way 
with  Noah  and  Job,  then  it  becomes  still 
more  strange  that  we  have  no  word  of  refer- 
ence to  him  in  the  other  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  which  deal  with  this  period.  The 
histories  of  Ezra  and  Nehemiali  give  us  all 
the  details  of  the  return  of  the  exiles  from 
Babylon  ;  but  of  Daniel  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  heard.  Daniel  was  living,  according 
to  the  book,  when  the  first  captives  returned 
to  Jerusalem  ;  but  he  was  not  among  them, 


DANIEL  183 

and  neither  he  nor  any  of  the  historians  of 
that  time  explain  why  he  did  not  go.  "  We 
might  have  assumed,"  says  Farrar,  "  that 
patriotism  so  burning  as  his  would  not  have 
preferred  to  stay  at  Babylon  or  at  Shushan 
when  the  priests  and  princes  of  the  people 
were  returning  to  the  Holy  City.  Others  of 
great  age  faced  the  perils  of  the  Kestora- 
tion  ;  and  if  he  stayed  behind  to  be  of  greater 
use  to  his  countrymen  we  cannot  account  for 
the  fact  that  he  is  not  distantly  alluded  to 
in  the  record  which  tells  how  '  the  chief  of 
the  fathers,  with  all  those  whose  spirit  God 
had  raised,  rose  up  to  go  to  build  the  house 
of  the  Lord  which  is  at  Jerusalem.'  "  ^ 

Nor  is  it  easy  to  understand  why  the  three 
later  prophets,  Haggai,  Zechariah,  and  Mal- 
achi,  are  wholly  silent  about  Daniel.  They 
do  not  seem  to  have  heard  of  him  ;  and  their 
expectations  respecting  the  future  of  their 
own  nation  are  very  different  from  those 
which  this  book  expresses.  They  are  look- 
ing for  the  immediate  and  glorious  rehabili- 
tation of  the  Hebrew  nationality,  while 
Daniel  seems  to  look  for  centuries  of  bond- 
age and  persecution.  But  how  could  these 
prophets  of  the  post-exilic  period  have  been 
1  Op.  cit.  p.  11. 


184     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

silent  respecting  sucli  a  hero  and  prince  as 
Daniel  is  here  represented  to  have  been  ? 

In  some  of  the  Apocryphal  books  we 
find  a  great  deal  of  information  about  Daniel ; 
but  these  are  known  to  be  romantic  tales 
with  no  historical  value. 

Not  only  is  there  no  mention  of  Daniel  in 
the  Old  Testament  (apart  from  those  two 
references  in  Ezekiel  which  seem  to  refer  to 
some  person  who  lived  long  before  the  day 
of  this  Daniel),  but  there  is  no  allusion  to 
the  book  of  Daniel  nor  to  any  of  the  events 
mentioned  in  it,  nor  to  any  of  the  visions 
described  in  it. 

What  is  still  more  striking,  the  place 
which  this  book  occupies  in  the  Hebrew 
Bible  shows  that  it  must  have  been  ad- 
mitted to  the  Canon  at  a  very  late  date. 
In  our  Bibles  it  stands  among  the  propheti- 
cal books ;  it  is  reckoned  as  one  of  the  four 
greater  prophets  ;  but  in  the  Hebrew  Bibles 
it  is  not  among  the  prophets  at  all ;  it  is 
among  the  Ketubim  or  writings  which  were 
esteemed  less  valuable  than  the  other  two 
divisions,  the  law  and  the  prophets,  and  it 
is  almost  at  the  end  of  the  list ;  it  follows 
after  Esther,  and  is  only  followed  by  Ezra, 
Nehemiah,  and  the   Chronicles.     This  is  a 


DANIEL  185 

pretty  strong*  iiulication  of  the  late  origin  of 
the  book.  If  it  had  been  written  by  sueh  a 
prince  and  prophet  as  Daniel  is  here  repre- 
sented to  be,  as  early  as  the  sixth  century 
before  Christ,  it  would  almost  certainly 
have  been  placed  by  the  Jews  in  the  col- 
lection of  the  prophets.  At  least  three 
books  which  were  certainly  written  after 
this  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  are  in 
that  collection ;  while  this  book  is  almost  at 
the  end  of  the  collection  of  less  sacred  writ- 
ings made  up  later  and  appended  to  the  law 
and  the  prophets. 

One  of  the  Apocryphal  books,  written 
by  Jesus  the  Son  of  Sirach  about  200 
B.  C,  has  a  list  of  the  Hebrew  worthies  ; 
among  them  he  names  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
Ezekiel,  and  the  twelve  minor  prophets,  but 
he  does  not  speak  of  Daniel.  This  is  a 
strong  indication,  not,  of  course,  a  proof, 
that  the  book  was  not  in  existence  at  the 
beginning  of  the  second  century  before 
Christ. 

Some  of  the  statements  of  the  book  are 
in  keeping  with  what  we  know  of  the  his- 
tory of  the  times,  but  others  appear  to  con- 
flict with  our  knowledge,  and  it  is  difficult 
to   understand   how  they   could   have  been 


186      SEVEN   PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

written  by  one  who  was  living  in  Babylon 
at  that  date. 

In  the  first  verse  we  read  that  Nebu- 
chadrezzar besieged  Jerusalem,  and  carried 
away  some  of  the  vessels  of  the  temple  in 
the  third  year  of  the  reign  of  Jehoiakim, 
king  of  Judah.  It  was  at  this  time,  ac- 
cording to  the  story,  that  Daniel  was  taken 
captive.  But  in  the  twenty-fifth  chapter 
of  Jeremiah  we  are  told  that  in  the  fourth 
year  of  Jehoiakim,  Jeremiah  warned  the 
people  of  Jerusalem  that  Jehovah  was 
about  to  send  against  them  Nebuchad- 
rezzar the  king  of  Babylon.  The  terms 
which  Jeremiah  uses  makes  it  evident  that 
Nebuchadrezzar  had  not  before  appeared 
before  the  gates  of  Jerusalem.  The  error 
is  not  serious  ;  it  only  indicates  a  lack  of 
familiarity  with  the  facts  which  a  writer 
livino-  at  the  time  would  not  have  exhibited. 
In  the  second  chapter  of  Daniel  the  dream 
of  Nebuchadrezzar  which  Daniel  interpreted 
is  fixed  in  the  second  year  of  his  reign ; 
but  in  the  first  chapter  we  are  told  that 
Daniel  and  his  three  companions  had  been 
by  command  of  the  king  for  three  years 
under  the  lore  of  Ashpenaz  the  master  of  tlie 
eunuchs,  before  anything  was  known  of  his 
power  of  interpretation. 


DAM  EL  1<S7 

The  name  Belteshazzar  was  given  by  the 
king  to  Daniel;  and  the  king  himself  ex- 
plains that  the  name  was  derived  from  the 
name  of  his  God,  —  Bel,  no  doubt.  Evi- 
dently this  is  what  the  writer  of  the 
book  supposed  the  name  Belteshazzar  to 
mean.  But  this  is  a  mistake  on  his  part. 
Belteshazzar  has  nothing  to  do  with  Bel. 
The  Chaldean  word  is  Balatsu-utsur,  which 
means  "  protect  his  life."  The  mistake  of 
the  writer  is  something  like  that  of  one  not 
familiar  with  modern  European  names  who 
should  suppose  that  "  Bonaparte  "  was  ety- 
mologically  derived  from  "bone,"  or  ''Cath- 
erine "  from  "  cat." 

Most  striking  of  all  these  errors  is  the 
use  of  the  word  "  Chaldeans "  to  describe 
astrologers  or  magicians.  That  word  was 
used  in  this  way  in  later  days  ;  just  as  the 
word  "  Egyptian  "  is  now  used  in  Scotland  to 
describe  a  gypsy ;  but  the  word  "  Chaldean" 
never  meant  any  such  thing  in  the  days  of 
Nebuchadrezzar  :  on  all  the  monuments  it 
signifies  simply  the  Chaldean  people,  and 
never  the  magians.  The  word  "  Egyptian  " 
could  never  have  been  used  to  describe  a 
gypsy  in  the  first  Christian  centuries ;  if 
you   found  a   writing,  purporting   to   have 


188      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

been  written  in  the  first  century  of  our  era, 
in  which  the  word  "  Egyptian  "  was  used  in 
that  way,  you  would  be  pretty  sure  that  the 
writing  could  not  have  originated  at  that 
time ;  that  it  must  have  a  later  date. 

There  are  many  other  historical  inaccura- 
cies which  I  cannot  stop  to  mention.  They 
are  of  small  account ;  they  do  not  affect  the 
value  of  the  book  at  all,  because  the  book  is 
not  history  ;  when  we  come  to  get  at  the 
real  character  of  it  we  shall  see  that  these 
unimportant  matters  in  no  wise  impair  its 
real  worth.  But  they  do  make  it  clear,  not 
only  that  the  narrative  is  not  historical,  but 
also  that  it  was  not  written  in  the  time  of 
the  Babylonian  empire. 

The  most  convincing  evidence  of  the  real 
character  of  the  book  is  yet  to  be  presented. 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  second  part 
of  Daniel,  that  which  is  occupied  with  cer- 
tain symbolic  visions,  has  generally  been 
regarded  as  prophetic.  That  is  the  tradi- 
tional view  of  it.  These  visions  of  the  four 
beasts,  and  the  ram  and  the  he  goat,  and 
all  the  rest,  are  supposed  to  be  symbols  of 
future  rulers  and  kingdoms.  Daniel  is  con- 
ceived to  be  a  prophet  who  stands  upon  the 
heights  of  preternatural  vision  in  the  sixth 


DANIEL  189 

century  before  Christ,  and  surveys  the 
commg  centuries. 

One  thing  strikes  us  as  remarkable.  If 
Daniel  was  a  Jewish  exile,  living  in  Baby- 
lon, his  heart,  like  the  hearts  of  all  his 
companions  in  exile,  must  have  been  full  of 
lono-iuo'  for  the  restoration  of  the  Jews  to 
their  own  land.  But  this  is  a  subject  which 
does  not  enter  at  all  into  his  dreams  and 
visions.  That  Restoration  was  just  about 
to  occur,  but  he  has  no  word  of  promise  con- 
cerning it.  He  is  supposed  to  be  unfolding 
the  providence  of  God  concerning  his  peo- 
ple, but  he  has  not  a  syllable  of  encour- 
agement to  offer  them  concerning  that  great 
intervention  of  Providence  in  their  behalf 
which  they  are  so  soon  to  experience.  In- 
stead of  this  he  gives  a  somewhat  vague  and 
general  outlook  over  certain  great  dynastic 
changes  which  are  to  occur  in  the  Eastern 
world,  and  then,  after  a  flight  over  four  cen- 
turies, and  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  progress 
of  history,  he  suddenly  drops  down  into  the 
second  century  before  Christ  and  begins  to 
describe,  very  minutely,  the  events  wliich 
were  to  happen  during  the  reign  of  a  Gre- 
cian king,  Antiochus  Epiphanes. 

This  prophecy  then,  if  prophecy  it  is,  is 


190    ,si:ri:.v  puzzling  bible  books 

radically  unlike  any  other  prophecy  in  the 
Bible.  All  the  other  prophecies  —  with  the 
exception  of  those  words  which  set  forth  the 
Messianic  hope  —  deal  with  events  which 
are  nigh,  even  at  the  doors.  It  is  the  imme- 
diate future  with  which  all  the  Old  Testa- 
ment prophets  are  concerned.^  It  is  the 
crisis  which  is  impending  to  which  they  point ; 
the  deliverance  at  hand  which  they  rouse 
the  people  to  achieve.  All  this  Old  Testa- 
ment prophecy  has  immediate  reference  to 
conduct,  —  to  the  conduct  of  the  people  to 
whom  it  is  addressed.  It  is  no  vague  prog- 
nostication about  far-off  events ;  if  you  have 
any  such  notion  about  it  you  dimly  under- 
stand the  nature  of  Old  Testament  prophecy. 
Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  and  Amos  and  Micah 
were  men  who  looked  into  the  future,  but 
no  farther  into  the  future  than  the  people 
to  whom  they  spoke  might  expect  to  go ; 
and  their  purpose  was  always  practical ;  they 
w^ere  trying  to  shape  that  future,  through 
the  conduct  of  those  to  whom  they  uttered 
their  message.  To  have  spoken  of  what 
would  happen  four  hundred  years  after  they 
were  dead  and  gone  —  further  than  to  hold 

^  This  assumes,  of  course,  the  late  date  of  the  last 
twenty -seven  chapters  of  Isaiah. 


DANIEL  191 

up  the  great  promise  of  the  prevalence  of 
the  Messiah's  kingdom  —  would  have  been 
to  them  a  meaningless  performance.  It 
would  not  have  comported  at  all  with  their 
notion  of  their  office. 

Furthermore,  whatever  predictions  of  fu- 
ture events  they  uttered  were  always  put  in 
a  general  form.  It  was  only  in  outline  that 
they  sought  to  reveal  the  future.  They 
might  predict  the  downfall  of  a  nation,  but 
they  never  made  circumstantial  statements 
about  the  manner  of  its  overthrow.  They 
do  not  undertake  to  give  a  definite  j^ro- 
gramme  of  national  events.  The  reason  for 
this  is  plain.  Neither  men  nor  nations  are 
profited  by  having  the  future  disclosed  to 
them.  The  providence  of  God  most  wisely 
keeps  us  in  ignorance  of  what  is  going  to 
happen  to  us. 

"  Heaven  from  all  creatures  hides  the  book  of  fate." 

Our  Lord  himself  expressly  said  that  of 
the  day  and  the  hour  of  the  coming  retribu- 
tions, '^  knoweth  no  one,  not  even  the  angels 
in  heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father." 
To  give  in  minute  detail  events  which  are 
to  take  place  in  the  life  of  a  man  or  of  a 
nation  would  be  to  paralyze  free  will  and 


192      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

destroy  responsibility.  We  should  have 
nothino:  to  do  but  to  watch  the  unrollino^  of 
the  scroll  of  fate.  This  is  not  God's  way 
of  dealing  with  men.  "  We  walk  by  faith, 
not  by  sight."  And  all  the  prophecy  of  the 
Old  Testament,  outside  of  the  book  of  Dan- 
iel, respects  tliis  principle  of  the  divine  ad- 
ministration. As  Nitzsch  has  said,  "it  is 
an  essential  condition  of  prophecy  that  it 
should  not  disturb  man's  relation  to  history." 
If  now  this  book  of  Daniel  was  really 
written  in  the  sixth  century  before  Christ, 
and  does  give  us  a  minutely  detailed  account 
of  the  events  which  were  going  to  happen  in 
the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  four  hun- 
dred years  later,  the  book  violates  the  whole 
economy  of  prophecy  as  it  is  disclosed  to  us 
in  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testament,  —  first 
in  describing  in  an  enigmatical  manner  dy- 
nasties and  personages  of  which  the  people 
of  that  day  could  have  had  no  knowledge, 
for  whose  doings  and  misdoings  they  could 
have  had  no  responsibility,  and  whose  his- 
tory must  have  been  a  perfect  riddle  to 
them ;  secondly,  in  giving  such  a  definite 
programme  of  those  far-off  future  events  as 
would,  if  it  were  accepted  as  laid  down  by 
divine  authority,  weaken  the  responsibility 


DANIEL  193 

of  the  people  whose  life  it  thus  delineated, 
when  the  day  should  come  in  which  the  pre- 
dictions were  to  be  fulfilled. 

Suppose  that  in  the  colonial  days  of  this 
nation  —  the  days  of  Otis  and  Samuel  Adams 
—  a  prophet  of  God  had  appeared.  What 
would  have  been  his  message?  Judging 
from  all  that  we  know  of  prophecy  he  would 
have  told  them,  in  a  general  way,  something 
concerning  the  revolutionary  struggle  just 
before  them,  and  its  probable  results.  But 
suppose  that  he  had  wholly  ignored  the  rev- 
olutionary period,  and  had  proceeded  to  give 
them,  in  some  detail,  under  symbolic  forms, 
the  events  of  the  war  of  the  Rebellion. 
What  could  the  people  of  that  time  have 
made  out  of  such  a  prediction  ?  How  could 
they  have  understood  it  ?  What  good  would 
it  have  done  them  ?  It  would  only  have 
filled  their  minds  with  confusion.  It  would 
have  given  them  no  light  whatever  on  the 
tremendous  questions  then  before  them.  I 
doubt  whether  any  of  us  can  persuade  our- 
selves that  the  Spirit  of  truth  ever  sends 
supernatural  messengers  to  men  with  such 
irrelevant  messages ;  or  that  He  ever  cripples 
the  free  action  of  any  people,  by  laying  down, 
centuries  beforehand,  the  programme  of  the 


194      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

events  which  are  to  take  place  in  their  na- 
tional life. 

To  maintain  that  the  book  of  Daniel  was 
written  in  the  reign  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  and 
that  it  is  a  prediction  which  culminates  in  a 
detailed  description  of  the  reign  of  Antio- 
chus  Epiphanes,  is  to  ask  us  to  believe  that 
in  this  book  the  fundamental  principles  of 
the  divine  administration  are  set  at  naught. 

We  may  well  hesitate  before  adopting 
this  theory.  Certainly  an  easier  explana- 
tion of  the  book  may  be  found. 

The  interpretation  is  not  far  to  seek. 
The  book  is  not  a  prophecy.  It  is  an  apoc- 
alypse. It  is  one  of  the  first  specimens  of 
a  kind  of  literature  which  flourished  exceed- 
ingly in  the  centuries  just  before  and  just 
after  the  beginning  of  our  era.  "  An  apoca- 
lypse, so  far  as  its  literary  form  is  con- 
cerned," says  Dean  Farrar,  "  claims  through- 
out to  be  a  supernatural  revelation,  given  to 
mankind  by  the  mouth  of  those  men  in 
whose  names  the  various  writings  appear. 
An  apocalypse  —  such  for  instance  as  the 
Book  of  Enoch,  the  Assumption  of  Moses, 
Baruch,  1  and  2  Esdras,  and  the  Sibylline 
Oracles  —  is  characterized  by  its  enigmatic 
form  which  shrouds  its  meaning  in  parables 


DANIEL  195 

and  symbols.  It  indicates  persons  without 
naming  them,  and  shadows  forth  historic 
events  under  animal  forms  or  as  operations 
of  Nature."  ^  The  author  of  an  apocalypse  is 
apt  to  put  his  words  into  the  mouth  of  some 
historic  or  traditional  personage  of  eminence. 
The  cases  just  mentioned  in  the  quotation 
from  Dean  Farrar  are  illustrations. 

The  author  of  this  book  undoubtedly  lived 
during  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Ejjiphanes, 
and  the  sufferings  of  his  people  under  the 
reign  of  this  oppressor  lay  heavily  upon  his 
heart.  He  sought  to  impart  to  them  a  les- 
son of  hope  and  encouragement.  The  form 
of  the  apocalypse,  employed  already,  to 
some  extent,  by  Ezekiel  and  Zechariah,  sug- 
gests itself  to  him  ;  and  the  figure  of  Daniel, 
who  may  have  been  an  historical  person, 
one  of  the  Jewish  exiles,  connected  with 
the  court  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  and  concerning 
whom  traditions,  and  perhaps  written  narra- 
tives, had  come  down  to  him,  is  chosen  by 
him  to  be  the  subject  of  his  story.  Just  how 
large  a  portion  of  these  narratives  about 
Daniel  consists  of  fact  and  how  much  of  it  is 
fancy,  we  may  not  know :  the  elements  are 
woven  together  after  the  manner  of  the  lit- 
1  Op.  cit.  p.  77.  ' 


196      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

erature  of  that  period.  In  the  Apocrypha 
are  several  books  of  this  character,  none  of 
which,  however,  compares  with  this  in  ethical 
and  spiritual  value  ;  but  the  literary  tyjje  is 
the  same.  These  books  were  written  about 
the  same  time  that  Daniel  was  written,  and 
the  resemblances  of  some  of  them  to  Daniel 
are  very  striking.  "  In  short,"  says  Dean 
Farrar,  "  the  Book  of  Daniel  may  be  illus- 
trated by  the  apocryphal  books  in  every 
single  particular.  In  the  adoption  of  an  il- 
lustrious name  —  which  is  the  most  marked 
characteristic  of  this  period  —  it  resembles 
the  additions  to  the  Book  of  Daniel,  the 
Books  of  Esdras,  the  Letters  of  Baruch 
and  Jeremiah,  and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon. 
In  the  imaginary  and  quasi-legendary  treat- 
ment of  history  it  finds  a  parallel  in  Wis- 
dom xvi.-xix.,  and  parts  of  the  Second  Book 
of  Maccabees  and  the  Second  Book  of  Es- 
dras. As  an  allusive  narrative  bearing  on 
contemporaneous  events  under  the  guise  of 
describing  the  past,  it  is  closely  parallel  to 
the  Book  of  Judith.  .  .  .  As  an  ethical  de- 
velopment of  a  few  scattered  historical 
data,  tending  to  the  marvelous  and  super- 
natural, but  rising  to  the  dignity  of  a  very 
noble  and  important  religious  fiction,  it  is 


DANIEL  197 

analogous,  though  incomparably  superior,  to 
Bel  and  the  Dragon,  and  to  the  stories  of 
Tobit  and  Susanna.  The  conclusion  is  ob- 
vious ;  and  it  is  equally  obvious  that  when 
we  suppose  the  name  of  Daniel  to  have  been 
assumed  and  the  assumption  to  have  been 
supported  by  a  unique  coloring,  we  do  not  for 
a  moment  charge  the  unknown  author  .  .  . 
with  any  dishonesty.  Indeed  it  seems  to  us 
that  there  are  many  traces  in  this  book  — 
(juiivavTa  a-vverolatv  —  which  exonerate  the 
writer  from  any  suspicion  of  intentional 
deception.  They  may  have  been  meant  to 
remove  any  tendency  to  error  in  understand- 
ing the  artistic  guise  which  was  adopted  for 
the  better  and  more  forcible  inculcations  of 
the  lessons  to  be  conveyed."  ^ 

"  A  very  noble  and  important  religious  fic- 
tion "  this  Book  of  Daniel  undoubtedly  is,  — 
the  noblest  and  the  most  important  religious 
fiction  in  the  whole  Bible.  But  if  it  is  a 
work  of  religious  fiction,  originating  about 
the  middle  of  the  century  before  Christ, 
then  those  historical  errors  and  anachro- 
nisms which  we  have  discovered  are  easily 
explained.  It  is  not  at  all  singular  that 
errors  of  this  sort  should  appear  at  such  a 
1  Op.  cit.  pp.  84,  85. 


198      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

distance  from  the  events  referred  to  ;  nor 
are  they  of  any  consequence.  The  value  of 
the  wanting  is  not  affected  by  them  in  the 
least.  They  are  not  intended  to  teach  us 
history  ;  the  character  of  Daniel,  as  it  is  ex- 
hibited in  this  narrative,  his  heroic  fidelity  to 
duty,  his  sublime  courage,  his  faith  in  God, 
sets  before  us  the  kind  of  man  that  we  all 
ought  to  be ;  and  to  these  Jews,  themselves 
walking  among  ravening  lions,  and  passing 
through  furnaces  of  persecution,  this  sub- 
lime teaching  was  exactly  what  they  needed. 
I  suppose  that  they  perfectly  understood  the 
meaning  of  the  book  when  it  was  placed  in 
their  hands  ;  the  rapid  sketch  of  the  cen- 
turies past  and  the  minute  recital  of  events 
happening  before  their  eyes  were  intelligible 
to  them,  and  the  grand  character  of  Daniel 
braced  their  courage  and  strengthened  their 
fidelity.  Many  of  the  symbolical  allusions 
that  are  enigmas  to  us  were  plain  enough  to 
them  ;  some  of  these  mystical  numbers  with 
which  commentators  have  been  wrestling  for 
centuries  referred,  I  dare  say,  to  processes 
which  were  going  on  before  their  eyes. 

One  wonders  what  the  man  who  wrote 
this  book  and  the  people  who  first  read  it 
would  say,  if  they   could   be  permitted   to 


DANIEL  199 

come  back  to  eaitli  and  read  the  explana- 
tions of  it  which  have  been  offered  by  learned 
men  during  the  last  fifteen  hundred  years ! 

The  greater  part  of  the  mystery  and  ob- 
scurity of  this  book  has  arisen,  therefore, 
from  the  attempt  to  give  it  a  character 
which  does  not  belong  to  it,  and  to  treat  it 
as  if  it  were  a  book  which  looked  forward 
from  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  instead 
of  its  being  a  book  which  looks  backward 
from  the  second  century  before  Christ.  We 
Lave  dressed  the  book  up  in  our  own  pre- 
possessions and  conceits  and  have  tried  to 
make  its  language  tally  with  our  theories. 
We  have  had  exactly  the  same  kind  of 
trouble  with  it  that  the  astronomers  had 
with  the  planets  while  they  were  sticking  to 
the  theory  that  the  earth  is  the  centre  of  the 
universe.  As  soon  as  they  found  out  that 
the  sun  was  the  centre,  a  great  many  of  their 
puzzles  were  solved.  In  like  manner  the 
Book  of  Daniel  becomes  intelligible  to  us 
as  soon  as  we  discover  that  instead  of  being 
written  in  the  sixth  century  it  was  written  in 
the  second. 

The  book  before  us  is  not,  therefore,  his- 
tory. It  is  a  kind  of  story,  to  which  the 
Jews  gave  a  distinctive  name  ;  they  called  it 


200     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

Haggada ;  many  specimens  of  these  Hag- 
gadoth  are  still  extant,  quite  a  number  of 
which  originated  about  this  time. 

In  trying  to  describe  the  life  of  the  Baby- 
lonian court  four  hundred  years  before  his 
day,  the  writer  kept  as  close  as  he  could  to 
the  facts  of  history  and  the  manners  of  the 
time ;  and  in  many  respects  the  picture  is 
true  to  the  life  of  that  day.  It  is  rather 
remarkable  that  a  writer  at  such  a  distance 
from  the  age  of  Nebuchadrezzar  could  have 
got  in  so  much  true  local  coloring.  The 
author  of  "  Ben  Hur  "  or  of  "  Quo  Vadis  " 
had  a  far  easier  task,  for  the  immense  his- 
torical and  archaeological  collections  of  to- 
day were  not  paralleled  by  anything  within 
the  reach  of  a  Jewish  scholar  residing  in 
Palestine  in  the  days  of  the  Seleucidae. 
Still,  there  are  a  good  many  historical  errors 
and  anachronisms,  enough  to  prove,  beyond 
the  shadow  of  a  doubt,  the  late  origin  of  the 
book.  In  a  work  of  fiction  these  errors  are 
not  important ;  the  desperate  attempts  which 
have  been  made  to  reconcile  them  with  his- 
torical facts  might  well  have  been  spared. 
It  saddens  one  to  think  of  the  years  that 
have  been  wasted  in  such  work,  and  of  the 
sophistication  which  has    been   suffered   by 


DANIEL  201 

the  intellects  and  the  consciences  of  many- 
theologians  and  commentators  in  their  ef- 
fort to  twist  this  narrative  into  conformity 
with  the  facts  of  history.  Intelligent  in- 
terpreters are  well  content  to  tnrn  from  these 
futile  and  confusing  conjectures  to  the  les- 
sons which  the  book  is  intended  to  convey. 

If  this  is  Haggada,  and  not  history,  then 
the  task  of  explaining  the  supernatural  ele- 
ments which  it  contains  need  give  us  no 
trouble.  We  are  not  called  to  prove  the 
actual  occurrence  of  incidents,  whether  nat- 
ural or  supernatural,  related  in  a  romance. 
The  writer's  purpose  is  all  that  need  con- 
cern us ;  in  the  structure  of  his  story  much 
liberty  is  allowed  him.  For  myself  I  am 
free  to  say  that  what  men  call  the  supernat- 
ural is  not  to  me  the  stumbling-block  that 
it  is  to  some ;  the  spiritual,  as  I  understand 
it,  is  always  the  supernatural ;  the  right  of 
reason  and  love  to  control  physical  forces, 
and  to  make  them  servants  of  the  higher  in- 
terests of  man,  is  a  right  that  I  shall  never 
hesitate  to  affirm  ;  and  so  long  as  the  spirit- 
ual side  of  man  is  acknowledged  to  be  supe- 
rior to  the  merely  physical,  so  long  we  have 
the  substance  of  what  I  understand  by  the 
supernatural.     And  when  any  being  appears 


202     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

in  history  in  whom  the  spiritnal  faculties  are 
fully  developed,  in  whom  has  appeared 
that  manifestation  of  the  divine  which  the 
whole  creation  is  waiting  to  see  in  all  of  us, 
in  the  hands  of  that  man  I  expect  to  see  the 
forces  of  nature  pliant  and  tractable  as  they 
are  not  in  ours ;  I  expect  to  see  him  easily 
doing  many  things  that  look  to  me  mirac- 
ulous. So  when  Jesus  Christ  is  represented 
as  doing  such  things  the  statement  does  not 
confound  me  ;  and  when  I  am  told  of  his 
appearance  after  death,  there  is  only  in  that 
a  sign  of  the  superiority  of  the  life  of  the 
perfect  spirit  to  external  conditions  which  is 
the  very  substance  of  my  faith  and  the  foun- 
dation of  my  morality.  There  is  no  reason, 
therefore,  why  I  should  wish  to  get  rid  of 
any  of  the  supernatural  elements  of  the 
Book  of  Daniel  simply  because  they  are  su- 
pernatural ;  my  philosophy  does  not  call  for 
any  such  surrender.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  is  evident  that  we  are  not  called 
upon  to  prove  the  actual  occurrence  of  inci- 
dents narrated  in  a  work  of  fiction.  What 
we  are  concerned  with,  as  I  have  said,  is  the 
author's  purpose.  For  this  is  certainl}^  fic- 
tion with  a  purpose  ;  we  have  no  other  kind 
of  fiction  in  the  Bible.     The  book  was  writ- 


DANIEL  203 

ten  when  the  Jews  were  passing  through  the 
terrible  tyranny  of  Antiochus ;  when  they 
were  suffering  from  persecutions  which 
robbed  them  of  their  liberties  and  defiled 
their  sanctuaries  and  sought  to  stamp  out 
their  most  sacred  institutions.  The  lesson 
that  the  author  wanted  to  teach  the  peo- 
ple was  that  God  is  always  in  his  world, 
watching  over  his  own ;  that  it  is  safe  to 
trust  in  Plim ;  that  no  earthly  power  can 
withstand  his  might ;  that  the  gates  of  hell 
shall  not  prevail  against  Him.  Deeper  than 
this,  even,  went  the  theological  purport  of 
this  teaching.  The  God  of  Israel,  Jehovah, 
was  the  God  of  righteousness.  In  all  the 
great  teaching  of  the  prophets  his  moral  and 
spiritual  attributes  are  emphasized.  His 
power  and  supremacy  are  always  affirmed ; 
but  the  reason  why  He  is  above  all  the  gods 
of  the  nations  is  that  He  doeth  righteousness. 

"  Thy  throne,  0  God,  is  for  ever  and  ever ; 
A  sceptre  of  equity  in  the  sceptre  of  thy  kingdom." 

The  bulwarks  of  his  dominion  are  purity 
and  goodness  and  truth  and  love.  In  this 
respect  the  religion  of  Israel  differs  funda- 
mentally from  the  religions  of  the  nations  by 
which  it  was  surrounded.  Their  gods  were  the 
personifications  of  force  rather  than  of  right- 


204     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

eousness.  The  fundamental  article  of  the 
Jewish  faith  was,  therefore,  that  right  is 
stronger  than  might ;  that  the  moral  forces 
of  the  universe  are  the  regnant  forces.  This 
was  the  faith  of  the  author  of  the  Book 
of  Daniel ;  this  was  the  lesson  which  he 
sought  to  impress  upon  the  suffering  people 
of  his  generation. 

Now  it  is  undoubtedly  true  that  his  way 
of  conceiving  these  sublime  truths  is  some- 
what different  from  ours,  —  more  objective, 
more  dramatic,  more  childish,  if  you  please. 
The  laws  of  the  moral  realm,  with  their  re- 
wards and  retributions,  are  always  crudely 
conceived  in  the  beginning  ;  first  that  which 
is  natural,  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual. 
This  author  shows  us  virtue  triumphing  in  a 
manner  in  which  we  do  not  now  always  ex- 
pect to  see  it  triumph.  We  know  that  the 
heroic  souls  who  abide  with  God  are  safe  with 
Him  ;  but  they  are  not  always  rewarded  by 
deliverance  from  physical  peril  and  suffering 
in  this  world,  and  by  receiving  the  crown  and 
the  sceptre  here.  The  tragedy  of  Calvary 
has  given  us  a  deeper  insight  into  the  truth 
of  things.  We  know  that  the  greatest  vic- 
tories are  only  won  by  those  who  lay  their 
all  upon  the  altar  of  sacrifice,  who  are  f  aitli- 


DANIEL  205 

fill  unto  death.  We  know  that  it  is  not  for 
us  to  stipulate  that  the  mouths  of  lions  shall 
be  stopped,  or  the  fires  of  persecution  made 
harmless  ;  like  the  six  hundred  at  Balaklava, 
when  the  order  comes,  it  is  ours  not  to  make 
leply,  or  to  reason  why,  but  only  to  do  and 
die ;  like  Childe  Roland  we  must  set  our 
lance  in  rest  and  blow  our  challenge,  even 
when  the  dark  tower  is  opening  its  jaws  to 
devour  us,  and  all  the  hosts  of  hell  are 
ranged  against  us.  It  is  then,  according  to 
our  faith,  that  we  are  conquerors  and  more 
than  conquerors. 

Still,  though  the  costume  of  the  thought 
may  be  different,  the  essential  truth  of  these 
stories  of  the  Book  of  Daniel  is  that  in 
which  we  rest  our  souls  ;  we  believe,  as  these 
authors  believed,  that  it  is  safe  to  trust  in 
the  eternal  Righteousness ;  that  nothing 
else  is  safe.  To  believe  that  force  is  ruled 
by  right,  that  the  Everlasting  Yea  is  that 
W'hich  affirms  the  moral  law  —  this  is  the 
victory  \vhich  overcometh  the  world.  This 
it  was  that  the  author  of  the  Book  of  Daniel 
believed  ;  and  this  it  was  which  he  sought 
to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  his  persecuted 
countrymen  in  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of 
their  history. 


206     SEVi:X  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

The  first  six  chapters  o£  this  book  contain 
six  stories  of  Daniel  and  his  companions, 
each  of  which  presents  to  us  this  great  truth 
under  a  different  form. 

In  the  first  chapter  we  see  the  four  He- 
brew youths,  Daniel,  Hananiah,  Mishael 
and  Azariah,  dwelling  in  the  king's  palace, 
under  the  care  of  Ashpenaz  the  Rabsaris,  or 
Master  of  the  Eunuchs.  They  were  of  royal 
blood,  as  we  are  told,  and  they  had  been 
selected  from  the  other  captives  by  reason 
of  their  great  beauty  and  intelligence.  Like 
the  Muslim  rulers  of  later  times,  the  Baby- 
lonian monarch  trained  his  captives  for  high 
service  ;  perhaps  it  was  from  this  story  that 
the  Turk  got  a  hint  for  his  janizaries.  For 
three  years  these  boys  were  to  be  subjected 
to  the  regimen  of  the  royal  household,  that 
they  might  be  made  adepts  in  the  occult  sci- 
ences of  divination  then  cultivated  at  the 
East.  Their  names  were  first  changed ;  for 
like  most  Hebrew  names  each  of  them  was 
derived  from  the  name  of  the  God  of  Israel, 
in  one  or  the  other  of  its  two  forms,  Elohim 
or  Jehovah.  The  syllables  "  El,"  or  "  iah,'' 
connected  with  a  Hebrew  name  always  de- 
note some  relation  to  God.  The  fatherhood 
of  God  was  thus  assumed  by  the  Hebrews, 


DANIEL  207 

although  its  full  significance  was  dimly  un- 
derstood. Of  course  these  names  which  so 
distinctly  recognized  the  God  of  Israel  would 
not  be  tolerated  in  the  Babylonian  court, 
and  the  four  young  Hebrews  soon  found 
themselves  registered  and  accosted  as  Belte- 
shazzar,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego. 
In  the  invention  of  these  names  the  author 
shows  his  lack  of  exact  knowledge  of  the 
Chaldean  tongue ;  for  Belteshazzar  is  not,  as 
he  supposes,  a  derivation  from  Bel  the  Chal- 
dean deity,  and  Abed-nego  is  undoubtedly 
meant  for  Abed-nebo,  or  "  servant  of  Nebo," 
one  of  the  Chaldean  deities,  while  Meshach 
is  a  name  for  which  there  seems  to  be  no 
known  equivalent  in  the  Chaldean  language. 
These  boys  were  to  be  fed  from  the  king's 
table  ;  but  to  this  arrangement  they  imme- 
diately raise  an  objection.  The  impression 
has  generally  been  that  their  protest  was 
made  for  hygienic  reasons  —  because  they 
preferred  a  more  frugal  and  wholesome  fare 
to  the  luxurious  viands  of  the  royal  menage. 
But  it  was  undoubtedly  the  dictate  of  reli- 
gion more  than  hygiene  which  governed 
them  ;  the  sin  of  eating  meats  which  were 
not  "  kosher,"  or  ceremonially  clean,  accord- 
ing to  the  Jewish  ritual,  was  being  strongly 


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emphasized  at  the  time  when  this  book  was 
written,  and  it  was  natural  for  the  writer  to 
represent  this  as  a  point  of  conscience 
among  the  Hebrew  exiles.  Accordingly  the 
lads  are  represented  as  begging  to  be  per- 
mitted to  live  upon  pulse  and  water,  by 
which  is  meant,  no  doubt,  a  simple  vegeta- 
ble diet ;  and  although  Ashpenaz  hesitates 
about  granting  their  request  for  fear  that 
their  health  will  fail  under  this  meagre  nour- 
ishment, they  gain  the  consent  of  one  of  his 
subordinates,  and  their  experiment  is  so  suc- 
cessful that  at  the  end  of  the  three  years 
they  come  forth  in  far  better  condition  than 
any  of  the  rest  of  the  king's  youth.  And 
not  only  are  they  superior  in  physical 
strength  and  beauty  to  their  companions, 
but  their  intellectual  progress  has  been 
equally  notable  ;  and  the  king  in  his  con- 
versation with  them  finds  them  so  far  above 
the  rest  that  they  are  chosen  to  become  his 
personal  attendants.  And  the  honor  and 
dignity  thus  simply  won  is  nobly  main- 
tained ;  in  the  following  years  they  fail  not 
to  command  the  respect  of  those  round 
about  them. 

The  meaning  of  this  beautiful  story  lies 
upon  its   face.     No  labored  explanation  is 


DANIEL  209 

needed.  These  Hebrew  lads,  under  circum- 
stances of  great  temptation,  were  true  to 
their  own  convictions.  No  matter  if  the 
scruple  which  they  maintained  was  mere 
ritual  requirement ;  to  them  it  was  a  matter 
of  duty,  and  they  were  loyal  to  the  highest 
obligation  they  had  conceived.  They  were 
in  Babylon,  but  instead  of  doing  what  the 
Babylonians  did,  they  did  what  conscience 
bade,  and  for  doing  it  they  found  favor 
with  God  and  men.  They  were  willing  to 
be  counted  singular  and  fanatical,  to  con- 
front ridicule  and  contempt  and  perhaps 
the  loss  of  all  things,  if  so  be  they  might  be 
found  faithful  to  the  highest  truth  they 
knew.  Such  is  the  lesson  of  this  first  chap- 
ter; and  who  can  doubt  that  the  courage 
and  fidelity  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
boys,  both  Jew  and  Gentile,  have  been 
strengthened  by  the  narrative  of  Daniel  and 
his  three  companions. 

And  although  the  primary  motive  of 
these  lads  in  living  an  abstemious  life  was 
religious  rather  than  hygienic,  yet  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  their  experience  has 
served  in  all  the  ages  to  justify  and  encour- 
age a  life  of  temperance  and  sobriety  ;  and 
that  those  who  have  sought  to  maintain  the 


210     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

integrity  of  the  soul  by  keeping  the  body 
under  have  found  their  purposes  confirmed 
by  this  beautiful  story. 

The  second  chapter  is  the  story  of  a 
dream  of  Nebuchadrezzar  and  its  interpre- 
tation by  Daniel.  We  have  here  a  striking 
parallel  to  the  story  of  Joseph,  in  the  book 
of  Genesis.  In  each  of  these  stories  there 
is  a  Hebrew  boy  dwelling  in  the  court  of  a 
great  king  ;  in  each,  the  boy  is  represented 
to  possess  great  physical  beauty  and  intel- 
lectual alertness  ;  in  each  the  monarch  has 
a  dream  which  troubles  him,  and  which 
neither  he  nor  his  wise  men  can  interpret ; 
in  each  the  Hebrew  boy  is  called  in  to 
interpret  the  dream,  and  receives  as  his 
reward  the  prime  ministership  of  the  king- 
dom. There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
author  of  Daniel  was  familiar  with  the 
story  of  Joseph,  though  he  enlarges  upon 
it,  and  makes  his  narrative  more  dramatic 
than  the  other.  There  are  one  or  two  slight 
slips  of  memory,  as  I  have  before  explained ; 
for  he  here  puts  this  dream  in  the  second 
year  of  the  reign  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  while 
in  the  first  chapter  he  explains  that  these 
boys  were  by  command  of  King  Nebuchad- 
rezzar three  years  in  training,  at  the  end  of 


DANIEL  211 

wliich  time  tliey  were  brought  before  the 
king  for  their  triumphant  examination  by 
him.  If  Daniel  had  been  made  grand  vizier 
in  the  second  year  of  the  king's  reign  he 
could  not  ver}^  well  have  been,  by  the 
king's  command,  three  years  in  seclusion  as 
a  pupil  in  the  king's  school.  Nor  is  the 
careful  explanation  of  Arioch  to  the  king 
that  he  had  found  a  man  among  the  Jewish 
captives  who  could  interpret  the  dream, 
quite  consistent  with  the  statement  of  the 
first  chapter  that  the  king  in  his  examina- 
tion of  the  four  lads  discovered  that  they 
knew  ten  times  more  than  all  the  magicians 
and  enchanters  that  were  in  all  his  realm. 
If  he  had  made  that  discovery,  it  seems 
natural  that  he  would  have  called  for  Daniel 
before ;  or  at  any  rate  that  Arioch  should 
not  have  found  it  necessary  to  tell  him  of 
the  existence  of  Daniel.  These  are  simply 
nuances  in  the  story-teller's  art ;  they  show 
that  the  unities  have  not  been  carefully 
studied  by  him  ;  he  is  not  thinking  very 
much  of  the  consistency  of  his  plot ;  his 
heart  is  full  of  the  deeper  meaning  of  it. 

The  feature  by  which  this  story  differs 
from  its  parallel  in  Genesis  is  the  fact  that 
the  king   not  only  could  not    interpret  the 


212     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

dream,  but  could  not  even  remember  it. 
This  was  the  exorbitant  demand  which  he 
made  upon  his  wise  men,  —  that  they  should 
first  tell  him  the  dream  which  he  had  for- 
gotten and  then  interpret  it.  With  true 
Oriental  arbitrariness  he  threatens  them 
that  if  they  do  not  recall  to  him  the  dream, 
they  shall  all  be  cut  in  pieces  and  their 
houses  be  made  a  dunghill.  This  they  can- 
not do ;  but  Daniel,  who  with  his  three 
companions  belongs  to  this  order  of  the 
wise  men  and  is  involved  in  the  threatened 
destruction,  begs  for  a  stay  of  execution, 
and  in  prayer  obtains  from  his  God  the 
forgotten  dream,  and  also  its  interpretation. 
The  modesty  of  the  young  man  in  all  this 
transaction,  his  scrupulous  care  in  insist- 
ing that  this  wisdom  of  his  is  but  the  gift 
of  God,  and  his  courage  and  fidelity  in  dis- 
closing a  matter  that  must  have  been  some- 
what unwelcome  to  the  king,  are  all  traits 
of  a  noble  character. 

The  dream,  as  Daniel  rehearses  it,  was  of 
an  image  with  head  of  fine  gold,  with  breast 
and  arms  of  silver,  with  belly  and  thighs  of 
brass,  with  legs  of  iron,  and  with  feet  part 
of  iron  and  part  of  clay.  Against  this 
imasre   a   stone    cut   out   of    the   mountain 


DANIEL  213 

without  hands  is  mightily  projected,  which 
smites  the  image  in  its  weakest  part,  its 
frail  and  crumbling  feet,  and  pulverizes  the 
whole  till  the  summer  wind  carries  it  away 
as  chaff  of  the  threshing-floor,  while  the 
demolishing  stone  grows  into  a  great  moun- 
tain that  fills  the  earth.  The  dream,  as 
Daniel  explains  it,  is  an  outline  of  the 
succession  of  dynasties.  Nebuchadrezzar's 
kingdom  is  the  head  of  gold  ;  this  Daniel 
makes  clear.  What  kingdoms  are  repre- 
sented by  the  silver  and  the  brass  and  the 
iron  mixed  with  clay  has  been  the  puzzle  of 
the  commentators  ;  but  almost  all  modern 
scholars  agree  that  they  are  the  Median, 
the  Persian,  and  the  Macedonian,  —  the  lat- 
ter dividing  in  the  empires  of  the  Syrian 
Seleucidae  and  the  Egyptian  Ptolemies. 
The  stone  without  hands  is  the  Messianic 
kingdom,  the  kingdom  of  God,  which  is  at 
length  to  prevail  over  all  other  empires  and 
fill  the  whole  earth. 

Inasmuch  as  the  writer  was  living  in  the 
time  of  this  fourth  kingdom,  it  will  be  seen 
that  in  his  symbolic  sketch  of  these  dynas- 
ties he  is  looking  backward,  not  forward ; 
and  that  the  only  prophetic  note  is  that  of 
the  growth  of  the  Messianic  kingdom,  whose 


214     SEVEX  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

victory  over  the  tottering  empire  of  Antio- 
chus  he  is  eagerly  awaiting. 

The  one  great  truth  which  this  vision  sets 
forth  is  the  transiency  and  essential  weak- 
ness of  all  these  glittering  kingdoms,  founded 
on  force  and  self-will,  and  appealing  only  to 
the  love  of  pomp  and  splendor,  —  the  cer- 
tainty of  their  downfall  before  the  growing 
might  of  the  empire  of  righteousness  and 
truth.  This  was  the  truth  with  which  the 
author  sought  to  solace  his  people,  trampled 
beneath  their  feet  of  iron  and  clay.  For, 
says  Dean  Farrar,  "  apart  from  the  Divine 
predictions  of  this  eternal  sunlight  visible 
on  the  horizon  over  vast  foreshortened  ages 
of  time,  which  to  God  are  but  as  one  day, 
let  us  notice  how  profound  is  the  symbolism 
of  the  vision,  —  how  well  it  expresses  the 
surface  glare,  the  inward  hollo wness,  the 
inherent  weakness,  the  varying  successions, 
the  predestined  transience  of  overgrown  em- 
pires." ^ 

In  describing  the  effect  upon  the  king  of 
the  narration  of  this  dream,  the  writer  some- 
what oversteps  the  bounds  of  probability. 
However  reasonable  it  might  be  to  supj^ose 
that  an  Oriental  monarch  would  prostrate 
1  Op.  cit.  p.  153. 


DANIEL  215 

himself  upon  his  face  to  worshij)  a  Hebrew 
youth,  we  can  hardly  suppose  that  such  a 
devout  spirit  as  Daniel  is  represented  to  be 
would  suffer  himself  to  be  the  recipient  of 
divine  honors;  or  would  have  permitted 
sacrifices  to  be  offered  to  him  and  incense 
to  be  burned  before  him.  Nor  can  we  deem 
it  consistent  that  a  youth  who  had  refused 
even  to  eat  of  food  from  the  king's  table 
would  consent  to  be  put  at  the  head  of  the 
whole  heathen  cult  of  magians,  as  the 
story  represents.  But  whatever  lack  of  vrai- 
semblance  the  story  may  manifest  in  its  de- 
tails, the  truth  that  the  God  of  righteous- 
ness is  the  greatest  of  all  the  gods,  that  they 
who  trust  in  Him  shall  not  be  confounded, 
and  that  it  is  his  kingdom  which  shall  at 
last  prevail,  is  set  forth  in  characters  of  liv- 
ing light.  The  prayer  of  Daniel  is  one  that 
can  never  fail  to  express  the  deepest  thought 
of  the  most  enlightened  worshiper. 

"  Blessed  be  the  name  of  God  forever  and 
ever,  for  wisdom  and  might  are  his ;  and  he 
change th  the  times  and  the  seasons ;  he  re- 
moveth  kings  and  setteth  up  kings ;  he  giv- 
eth  wisdom  unto  the  wise  and  knowledge  to 
them  that  know  understanding ;  he  revealeth 
the  deep  and  secret  things ;  he  knoweth  what 


216      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE    BOOKS 

is  in  the  darkness,  and  the  light  dwelleth 
with  him !  " 

The  third  chapter  is  the  story  of  the  He- 
brew Children,  Daniel's  three  companions. 
Singularly,  although  according  to  the  tale 
he  is  now  grand  vizier  of  the  kingdom,  he 
seems  to  have  no  part  in  the  events  of  this 
chapter ;  he  is  not  consulted,  nor  does  he  in 
any  way  intervene  for  the  protection  of  his 
friends.  Of  course  the  reconcilers  who  take 
this  for  history  have  explanations  enough; 
they  tell  us  that  he  was  probably  absent 
from  the  capital  on  some  business  of  state. 
Still  the  erection  of  such  an  image  of  gold 
as  is  here  described,  ninety  feet  in  height 
and  nine  feet  in  breadth,  must  have  strained 
somewhat  the  royal  exchequer.  It  would 
seem  that  the  prime  minister  must  have 
known  something  about  it.  As  nearly  as  I 
can  calculate  a  figure  of  that  size  in  solid 
gold  would  have  consumed  a  full  third  of 
all  the  gold  on  the  face  of  the  earth  to-day, 
and  it  is  not  likely  that  the  world  possessed, 
at  that  day,  one  third  of  its  present  store  of 
gold.  But  those  who  wish  to  make  history 
of  this  chapter  suggest  that  the  image  may 
have  been  only  gilded,  and  if  that  were  all, 
a  very  small  amount  of  the  yellow  metal 


DANIEL  217 

would  suffice.  However,  we  are  not  now 
concerned  to  justify  the  historicity  of  the 
chapter.  The  story-teller  must  have  his 
liberties. 

What  is  more  remarkable  is  the  attitude 
of  Nebuchadrezzar  in  this  chapter.  The 
same  monarch  who  had  prostrated  himself 
before  Daniel  in  the  most  abject  recognition 
of  the  might  of  Daniel's  God  now  proceeds 
to  erect  this  stupendous  idol  of  gold,  pre- 
sumably dedicated  to  Bel-merodach  or  Nebo, 
the  patron  deities  of  Babylon,  and  to  sum- 
mon all  the  officials  of  the  kingdom  to  come 
and  bow  down  before  it.  How  long  this 
was  after  the  events  of  the  last  chapter  tlie 
writer  does  not  tell  us ;  but  the  progress  of 
the  story  gives  us  the  impression  that  the 
sudden  conversion  of  Nebuchadrezzar  was 
followed,  like  many  sudden  conversions,  by 
a  speedy  backsliding.  The  terms  in  which 
the  despot  commands  all  his  subjects  to  wor- 
ship this  idol,  the  work  of  his  hands,  are 
sonorous  and  stately  enougli. 

"  Then  the  satraps  and  the  governors,  the 
judges,  the  treasurers,  the  counsellors,  the 
sheriffs,  and  the  rulers  of  the  provinces  were 
gathered  together  unto  the  dedication  of  the 
image  that  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king   had 


218     SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

set  up ;  and  they  stood  before  the  image  that 
Nebuchadnezzar  had  set  up.  Then  the  her- 
ald cried  aloud,  To  you  it  is  commanded, 
O  peoples,  nations,  and  languages,  that  at 
what  time  ye  hear  the  sound  of  the  cornet, 
flute,  harp,  sackbut,  psaltery,  dulcimer,  and 
all  kinds  of  music,  ye  fall  down  and  wor- 
shij)  the  golden  image  that  Nebuchadnezzar 
the  king  hath  set  up ;  and  whoso  falleth 
not  down  and  worshipeth  shall  the  same 
hour  be  cast  into  a  burning  fiery  furnace." 

This  command  the  three  friends  of  Daniel, 
under  their  new  names,  Shadrach,  Meshach, 
and  Abed-nego,  refused  to  obey.  The  where- 
abouts of  Daniel  himself  in  all  these  great 
festivities  we  are  left  to  conjecture.  The 
only  recusants  reported  are  his  three  com- 
panions, who  had  themselves  been  lifted  to 
satrapies,  at  the  time  of  his  elevation,  but 
who  had  not  forsaken  the  worship  of  the 
God  of  their  fathers.  It  is  the  Chaldeans, 
some  of  the  magian  priests,  who  bring  to 
Nebuchadrezzar  the  rei3ort  of  their  disobe- 
dience to  his  decree.  The  king  is  wroth,  but 
he  offers  them  another  opportunity.  Once 
more  the  solemn  music  shall  sound ;  if  then 
they  prostrate  themselves,  well ;  but  if  they 
refuse,  the  same  hour  they  shall  be  cast  into 


DANIEL  219 

the  burning*  fiery  furnace,  "and  who,"  he 
demands,  "  is  that  God  that  shall  deliver 
you  out  of  my  hands  ?  "  The  answer  of  the 
three  young  men  is  one  of  the  memorable 
words  that  time  has  treasured  for  us :  "  O 
Nebuchadnezzar,  we  are  not  careful  to  an- 
swer thee  in  this  matter.  If  it  be  so,  our 
God  whom  we  serve  is  able  to  deliver  us 
from  the  burning  fiery  furnace,  and  he  will 
deliver  us  out  of  thine  hand,  O  king !  But 
if  not,  be  it  known  unto  thee,  O  king,  that 
we  will  not  serve  thy  gods  nor  worship  the 
golden  image  which  thou  hast  set  up." 

These  faithful  ones  do  not  admit  that  God 
is  not  able  to  deliver  them  ;  that  is  not  their 
meaning ;  but  they  do  not  know  that  He  will 
find  it  wise  and  right  to  save  them  alive. 
That  is  more  than  any  man  in  such  a  crisis 
can  affirm.  They  were  aware,  as  Dean 
Farrar  says,  "  that  in  many  cases  it  has  not 
been  God's  purpose  to  deliver  his  saints  out 
of  the  peril  of  death ;  and  that  it  has  been 
far  better  for  them  that  they  should  be  car- 
ried heavenward  on  the  fiery  chariot  of 
martyrdom.  They  were  therefore  perfectly 
prepared  to  find  that  it  was  the  will  of  God 
that  they  should  perish,  as  thousands  of  God's 
faithful  ones  had  perished  before  them,  from 


220     SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

the  tyrannous  and  cruel  hands  of  man ;  and 
they  were  cheerfully  willing  to  confront  that 
awful  extremity.  Thus  regarded,  the  three 
words  '  But  if  not '  are  aaiong  the  sublim- 
est  uttered  in  all  Scripture.  They  represent 
the  truth  that  the  man  who  trusts  in  God 
will  continue  to  say  to  the  end,  '  Though  he 
slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  in  him.'  They  are 
the  triumph  of  faith  over  all  adverse  cir- 
cumstances. ...  It  is  man's  testimony  to 
his  indomitable  belief  that  the  things  of 
sense  are  not  to  be  valued  in  comparison  to 
that  high  happiness  which  arises  in  obe- 
dience to  the  law  of  conscience,  and  that 
no  extremities  of  agony  are  commensurate 
with  apostasy.  This  it  is,  which,  more  than 
anything  else,  has,  in  spite  of  appearances, 
shown  that  the  spirit  of  man  is  of  heavenly 
birth,  and  has  enabled  him  to  unfold  — 

'  The  wing's  witlim  him  wrapped  and  proudly  rise 
Redeemed  from  earth,  a  creature  of  the  skies.' 

For  whenever  there  is  left  in  man  any  true 
manhood,  he  has  never  shrunk  from  accept- 
ing death  rather  than  the  disgrace  of  com- 
pjliance  with  what  he  despises  and  abhors. 
This  it  is  which  sends  our  soldiers  on  the 
forlorn  hope,  and  makes  them  march  with  a 
smile  upon  the  batteries  which  vomit  their 


DANIEL  221 

cross-fires  upon  them  ;  '  and  so  die  by  tliou- 
saiids  the  unnamed  demigods.'  By  virtue 
of  this  it  has  been  that  all  the  martyrs  have, 
'  with  the  irresistible  might  of  their  weak- 
ness,' shaken  the  solid  world."  ^ 

The  fury  of  the  king  whose  power  to  co- 
erce the  soul  is  thus  gloriously  resisted,  the 
swift  execution  of  the  savage  decree  upon 
the  faithful  ones,  the  awful  fate  of  the  ser- 
vants of  the  king  who  sought  to  execute  the 
decree,  and  the  astonishment  and  consterna- 
tion of  the  king  when  he  saw  the  three  men 
walking  unharmed  through  the  fire  and  with 
them  a  fourth  whose  aspect  was  "  like  a  son  of 
the  gods,"  the  Messenger  of  the  Covenant, 
sent  for  their  protection ;  the  haste  with 
which  the  confounded  monarch  calls  them 
forth  from  the  furnace,  and  the  promptness 
with  which  he  once  more  confesses  the  God 
of  Israel  and  makes  proclamation  that  his 
name  shall  be  revered  throughout  his  domin- 
ions —  all  this  is  a  story  that  needs  no  tell- 
ing where  the  Bible  is  published  in  the  com- 
mon speech  of  the  people. 

Is  the  story  true?  I  have  said  already 
that  it  is  absurd  to  defend  the  miracles  of  a 
work  of  fiction.  But  in  a  larger  and  deeper 
1  Op.  cit.  pp.  176,  177. 


222      SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

sense  it  is  true  ;  it  is  true  to  the  highest  and 
divinest  principles  of  human  nature ;  it  is  a 
true  picture  of  what  man  in  his  noblest  mo- 
ments knows  himself  to  be.  Many  a  man 
in  his  hour  of  trial  has  thouo^ht  of  the  answer 
of  these  faithful  ones  to  the  king,  and  his 
courage  has  been  keyed  to  the  same  high 
resolve.  For  what  they  were  ready  to  do  is, 
as  every  man  knows,  the  essentially  and 
eternally  right  and  true  and  manly  thing 
to  do.  It  is  when  this  spirit  of  fidelity  to 
the  highest  truth  he  knows  makes  him  ready 
with  undrooping  eyelids  to  look  tyrants  in 
the  face,  and  to  walk  joyfully  into  the  flames 
of  the  furnace,  that  he  shows  himself  worthy 
to  be  called  one  of  the  sons  of  God.  And 
this  is  the  true  supernatural,  —  this  triumph 
of  the  spirit  that  is  in  man  over  the  instincts 
and  impulses  of  his  lower  nature.  The  in- 
tervention which  saves  a  man  from  death  in 
such  an  emergency  is  a  wonder ;  but  the 
courage  and  fidelity  that  faces  death  without 
flinching  is  more  than  a  wonder  ;  it  is  the 
sign  and  seal  of  a  divine  humanity. 

The  fourth  chapter  of  Daniel,  like  all  the 
other  chapters  of  the  first  half  of  the  book,  is 
a  separate  story ;  its  theme  is  the  temporary 
madness   of    Kino^    Nebuchadrezzar.      This 


DANIEL  223 

calamity  Is  represented  as  having  been  vis- 
ited upon  him  as  a  penalty  for  his  arro- 
gance and  pride  of  power. 

A  curious  lack  of  unity  appears  in  the 
literary  form  of  the  chapter.  It  begins  with 
what  appears  to  be  a  letter  or  decree  of 
King  Nebuchadrezzar  in  which  he  recites 
in  the  first  person  a  dream  that  disturbed 
him,  and  its  interpretation  by  Belteshazzar, 
otherwise  Daniel.  At  the  twenty-eighth 
verse  the  narration  changes  abruptly  from 
the  first  to  the  third  person  ;  at  the  thirty- 
fourth  verse,  the  first  person  is  as  suddenly 
resumed.  If  this  were  a  document  from  the 
hand  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  the  interjection  of 
this  portion  in  which  he  is  spoken  of  would 
be  unaccountable.  If  it  is  Hasfoada  and  not 
history,  the  imperfect  art  of  the  writer 
easily  accounts  for  it. 

This  dream  of  Nebuchadrezzar  he  is  able 
to  remember,  and  the  task  imposed  upon  his 
wise  men  is  the  easier  one  of  interpretation. 
To  this,  however,  they  prove  unequal ;  and 
it  is  not  until  they  have  miserably  failed  that 
Daniel  is  called  in  again.  In  real  life  the 
king  would  scarcely  have  gone  through  the 
motions  of  summoning  these  incapables  be- 
fore him,  when  experience  had  abundantly 


224     SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

shown  him  that  Daniel  knew  ten  times  more 
than  all  of  them.  But  the  story  is  told  to 
display  the  superiority  of  the  Hebrew  seer, 
and  the  repeated  discomfiture  of  the  Baby- 
lonian magians  enhances  the  effect. 

The  dream,  as  the  king  rehearses  it,  was 
of  a  great  tree,  reaching  unto  heaven,  whose 
leaves  were  fair,  whose  fruit  abundant,  fur- 
nishing food  for  all,  in  whose  branches 
dwelt  the  fowls  of  the  heaven,  and  in  whose 
shade  rested  the  beasts  of  the  earth.  While 
he  beheld,  there  descended  from  heaven  a 
"  watcher  "  and  a  "  holy  one."  These  terms 
are  characteristic  of  the  post-exilic  litera- 
ture ;  the  Persian  angelology  greatly  influ- 
enced the  Jewish  thought.  "  It  is  only  after 
the  exile,"  says  Farrar,  "that  we  find  an- 
gels and  demons  playing  a  more  prominent 
part  than  before,  divided  into  classes,  and 
even  marked  out  by  special  names."  The 
heavenly  messengers,  standing  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  mighty  tree,  cry  :  "  Hew  down 
the  tree  and  cut  off  his  branches,  shake  off 
his  leaves  and  scatter  his  fruit ;  let  the 
beasts  get  away  from  under  it  and  the  fowls 
from  his  branches."  The  stump  only  is  to 
be  spared,  and  this  is  to  be  bound  with  a 
hoop  of    iron  and  brass,  and  left  standing 


DANIEL  225 

among  the  fresh  grasses  and  the  falling 
dews.  And  now  suddenly  changes  the  fig- 
ure of  the  dream.  The  stump  of  the  tree 
is  invested  with  human  attributes,  and  the 
angelic  judgment  proceeds  :  "  Let  his  por- 
tion be  with  the  beasts  in  the  grass  of  the 
earth  ;  let  his  heart  be  changed  from  man's 
and  let  a  beast's  heart  be  given  unto  him, 
and  let  seven  times  pass  over  him."  Figures 
are  greatly  mixed  in  this  imagery ;  the  con- 
structive imagination  works  clumsily.  But 
the  watchers  and  the  holy  ones  announce 
that  all  this  dream  symbolizes  the  august 
truth  "that  the  Most  High  ruleth  in  the 
kingdom  of  men  and  giveth  it  to  whomso- 
ever he  will." 

To  Daniel,  the  king  tells  this  dream  and 
asks  the  interpretation.  "  My  lord,"  the 
seer  replies,  "the  dream  be  to  them  that 
hate  thee  and  the  interpretation  thereof  to 
thine  adversaries."  It  is  a  courtly  and  gen- 
erous wish  that  the  calamity  foreshadowed 
by  the  dream  might  fall  on  his  enemies 
rather  than  on  the  king  himseK.  Yet  the 
interpretation,  ominous  as  it  is,  is  not  with- 
held. Daniel  tells  the  King  that  the  great 
tree  is  Nebuchadrezzar  himself,  and  that 
the   denunciation   of  destruction   against  it 


226      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

by  the  watcher  and  the  holy  one  signifies 
"that  thou  shalt  be  driven  from  men  and 
thy  dwelling  shall  be  with  the  beasts  of  the 
field,  and  thou  shalt  be  made  to  eat  grass 
as  oxen,  and  shalt  be  wet  with  the  dew  of 
heaven,  and  seven  times  shall  pass  over 
thee  ;  till  thou  know  that  the  Most  High 
ruleth  in  the  kingdom  of  men  and  giveth 
it  to  whomsoever  he  will." 

The  stump  spared  among  the  grasses  and 
the  dews  is  the  sign  of  the  restoration  of 
the  divine  favor,  after  the  king  has  learned 
"  that  the  heavens  do  rule."  And  the  admo- 
nition of  the  seer  is  faithful  and  unsparing  : 
"  Wherefore,  O  king,  let  my  counsel  be  ac- 
ceptable unto  thee,  and  break  off  thy  sins 
by  righteousness  and  thine  iniquities  by 
showing  mercy  to  the  poor  ;  if  there  may  be 
a  lengthening  of  thy  tranquillity."  But  the 
king,  who  here  represents  himself  as  having 
earnestly  sought  the  wisdom  of  Daniel,  for- 
gets all  about  the  dream  and  pays  no  heed 
to  the  counsel  given.  A  twelvemonth  later 
he  is  pacing  the  roof  of  the  mighty  palace 
of  Babylon,  lifted  to  a  great  heiglit  above 
the  splendor  of  the  encircling  caj^ital,  exult- 
ing in  his  own  magnificence,  and  saying  to 
himself,  "  Is  not  this  great  Babylon  which 


DANIEL  227 

I  have  built  for  the  royal  dwelling-23lace,  by 
the  might  of  my  power  and  for  the  glory  of 
my  majesty,"  —  when  suddenly  falls  a  voice 
from  heaven  announcing  to  him  the  fulfill- 
ment of  that  forgotten  dream.  "  And  he 
was  driven  from  men  and  did  eat  grass  as 
oxen,  and  his  body  was  wet  with  the  dew  of 
heaven,  till  his  hair  was  grown  like  eagle's 
feathers  and  his  nails  like  bird's  claws."  At 
the  end  of  the  days  appointed  his  under- 
standing returned  to  him,  and  he  knew  the 
meaning  of  the  discipline  that  had  been 
dealt  out  to  him,  humbly  confessing  his 
dependence  on  the  God  of  heaven,  whose 
dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion.  "  And 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  are  reputed 
as  nothing,  and  he  doeth  according  to  his 
will  in  the  army  of  heaven  or  among  the 
inhabitants  of  earth,  and  none  can  stay  his 
hand  nor  any  say  unto  him.  What  doest 
thou?  "  So,  chastened  by  the  might  of  God, 
Nebuchadrezzar  is  reinstated  in  his  king- 
dom, his  counselors  and  lords  come  back  to 
him,  and  his  reign  goes  on  in  glory  undi- 
minished. And  the  chapter  ends  with  the 
stately  and  solemn  words  :  "  Now  I,  Nebu- 
chadnezzar, praise  and  extol  and  honor  the 
king  of  heaven  ;  for  all  his  works  are  truth 


228     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

and  his  ways  judgment;  and  those  that 
walk  in  pride  he  is  ready  to  abase." 

Those  who  maintain  the  historical  char- 
acter of  the  book  of  Daniel  have  sought  in 
vain  among  the  monuments  and  inscriptions 
for  some  confirmation  of  this  narrative. 
History  knows  nothing  of  any  such  seven 
years'  madness  of  the  great  Babylonian  king. 
The  mental  malady  from  which  he  is  repre- 
sented as  suffering  is  not  indeed  unknown ; 
lycanthropia  and  cynanthropia  are  types  of 
insanity  in  which  the  patient  imagines  him- 
self an  animal  and  imitates  the  habits  of  the 
beast.  But  there  is  no  intimation  in  any  of 
the  historical  records  which  we  possess  that 
Nebuchadrezzar  was  ever  afflicted  in  this 
way. 

If  the  story  is  what  we  have  assumed  it  to 
be,  the  explanation  is  not  difficult.  The 
writer  is  telling  about  Nebuchadrezzar  with 
his  eye  on  Antiochus  Epiphanes.  A  striking 
parallel  between  these  two  monarchs  would 
present  itself  to  the  mind  of  a  devout  Jew. 
Each  of  them  had  conquered  the  holy  city 
eTerusalem.  Each  of  them  had  robbed  the 
temple  of  its  sacred  vessels.  Each  of  them 
had  sought  to  coerce  the  Jews  into  a  surren- 
der of  their  faith.     And  whatever  may  have 


DANIEL  229 

been  true  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  it  seems  to 
have  been  true  of  Antiochus  that  he  was 
subject  to  spells  of  melancholy  that  amounted 
to  madness.  For  this  reason  he  came  to  be 
popularly  known  as  Antiochus  Epimanes, 
Antiochus  the  Mad.  It  is  evident,  then, 
that  this  story  of  Nebuchadrezzar  is  aimed 
at  Antiochus ;  it  is  not  so  much  a  warning 
to  him  as  it  is  a  word  of  comfort  to  the  op- 
pressed Israelites,  who  are  encouraged  to  be- 
lieve that  One  who  is  able  to  "  put  down  the 
mighty  from  their  seats  "  is  their  God,  and 
that  the  haughtiness  and  pride  of  the  ty- 
rant may  speedily  come  to  an  end. 

The  one  notable  thing  in  the  treatment 
of  Nebuchadrezzar  is  the  gentleness  of  Dan- 
iel's words  to  him.  Room  for  repentance  is 
offered  to  him  ;  like  the. Book  of  Jonah,  and 
wholly  unlike  the  Book  of  Esther,  this  book 
contains  a  gospel ;  the  king  is  graciously 
admonished  to  break  off  his  sins  by  right- 
eousness, if  peradventure  God  will  be  merci- 
ful to  him.  The  Jewish  rabbis,  we  are  told, 
have  severely  censured  Daniel  for  this  lenity  ; 
they  have  declared  "  that  Daniel  was  subse- 
quently thrown  into  the  den  of  lions  to  pun- 
ish him  for  the  crime  of  tendering  good  ad- 
vice to  Nebuchadnezzar  ;  and,  moreover,  the 


230     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

advice  could  be  of  no  real  use,  '  for  even  if 
the  nations  of  the  world  do  righteousness 
and  mercy  to  prolong  their  dominion,  it  is 
only  sin  to  them.'  "  It  is  this  fierce  spirit 
of  bigotry  which,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  next 
chapter,  the  book  of  Jonah  so  clearly  re- 
bukes. 

The  fifth  chapter  is  a  most  dramatic  pic- 
ture of  the  downfall  of  Babylon.  Histori- 
cally it  is  quite  as  dubious  as  any  other  por- 
tion of  the  book.  "  Belshazzar  the  King," 
the  subject  of  this  narrative,  is  not  known 
to  history.  He  is  called  the  son  of  another 
successor  of  Nebuchadrezzar,  but  so  far  as 
we  can  learn  from  the  inscriptions  Nebuchad- 
rezzar had  no  such  son.  Evil-merodach 
was  the  son  who  succeeded  him  in  the  king- 
dom ;  he  reigned  about  two  years.  After  him 
came  Nergal-sharezer,  whose  reign  lasted 
four  years  ;  then  an  infant  who  was  nominal 
ruler  for  nine  months,  and  who  was  suc- 
ceeded by  Nabunaid,  in  whose  hands  wa-s 
the  kingdom  when  Babylon  was  conquered. 
Nabunaid  was  not  the  son  of  Nebuchadrez- 
zar ;  he  was  a  usurper.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  he  may  have  married  a  daughter 
of  Nebuchadrezzar,  but  the  narrative  gives 
the  impression  that  his  relation  was  that  of 


DANIEL  231 

blood  rather  than  of  marriage.  On  one  of 
the  Babylonian  tablets  was  found,  not  long- 
ago,  the  name  of  a  king,  which  is  somewhat 
similar  to  Belshazzar,  and  it  was  loudly  pro- 
claimed that  the  monuments  had  vindicated 
the  historicity  of  Daniel ;  but  it  turns  out 
that  this  king  reigned  before  the  capture  of 
the  city.  That  Nabunaid  was  the  king  at 
the  time  of  the  capture  is  a  well-established 
fact ;  and  he  was  not  slain,  but  pardoned  by 
the  captor  and  sent  to  be  governor  of  a  dis- 
tant province,  where  he  died.  He  had  a  son 
whose  name  was  Belshazzar,  but  that  son 
was  never  king.^ 

1  "  Belshazzar  is  represented  as  King  of  Babylon  and 
Nebuchadnezzar  is  spoken  of  throug-hout  chapter  v.  as 
his  father.  In  point  of  f  act  Naboniden  (Nabu-nahid)  was 
the  last  king  of  Babylon :  he  was  a  usurper,  not  related 
to  Nebuchadnezzar  ;  and  one  Belshazzar  is  mentioned  as 
his  son.  It  may  be  admitted  as  probable  (though  the 
fact  has  not  as  yet  been  found  to  be  attested  by  the  inscrip- 
tions) that  Belsharezar  held  command  for  his  father  in 
Babylon  while  the  latter  (see  Sayce,  Fresh  Light,  etc., 
etc.,  p.  170)  took  the  field  against  Cyrus  ;  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  think  that  this  could  entitle  him  to  be  spoken  of 
by  a  contemporary,  as  '  king.'  As  regards  his  relation- 
ship to  Nebuchadnezzar,  there  remains  the  possibility 
that  Nabuuahid  may  have  sought  to  strengthen  his  posi- 
tion by  marrying  a  daughter  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  in 
which  case  the  latter  might  be  spoken  of  as  Belshazzar's 
father  (grandfather,  by  Hebrew  usage).     The  terms  of 


232     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE    BOOKS 

Moreover  it  was  not  Darius  the  Mede 
who  took  the  city  and  the  kingdom,  as  we 
are  told  in  the  last  verse,  but  Cyrus  the  Per- 
sian. Of  this  there  seems  to  be  no  reason- 
able doubt.  This  Darius  the  Mede  is  thus 
far  unknown  to  history.  In  the  ninth  chap- 
ter he  is  called  the  son  of  Ahasuerus,  that 
is,  of  Xerxes  ;  but  Xerxes  had  no  such  son  ; 
his  father  was  Darius  Hystaspes,  a  Persian  ; 
and  how  his  son,  if  he  had  had  one,  could 
be  Darius  "  the  Mede,"  is  not  easily  under- 
stood. Besides,  Ahasuerus,  or  Xerxes,  did 
not  come  to  the  throne  imtil  fifty-three 
years  after  the  capture  of  Babylon  by  the 
army  of  Cyrus.  The  fact  is  that  the  author 
has  got  his  historical  facts  considerably  con- 
fused ;  he  was  not  so  familiar  as  the  monu- 
ments and  inscriptions  have  enabled  modern 
scholars  to  be  with  the  Chaldean  succes- 
sions. 

Professor  Sayce  is  one  of  the  most  distin- 

chap.  v.,  however,  produce  certainly  the  impression  that, 
in  the  view  of  the  writer,  Belshazzar  was  actually  Nebu- 
chadnezzar's son.  Though  Belshazzar  was  a  historical 
character,  who  probably  held  a  prominent  position  at  the 
time  of  the  capture  of  the  city,  it  must  be  owned  that 
the  representation  given  is  such  as  to  support  somewhat 
strongly  the  opinion  that  it  is  founded  upon  the  Jewish 
tradition  of  a  later  age."     Driver's  Introduction^  4C8. 


DANIEL  233 

guished  and  one  of  the  most  conservjitlve 
of  modern  Assyriologists ;  and  in  his  Look 
on  "  The  Higher  Criticism  and  the  Monu- 
ments "  he  gives  ns  the  results  of  the  impor- 
tant discoveries  which  have  been  made  dur- 
ing the  past  few  years.  It  turns  out  that 
that  story  of  Herodotus  which  has  been  so 
often  repeated  respecting  the  siege  and  cap- 
ture of  Babylon  is  an  unfounded  tradition. 
"  There  was  no  siege  and  capture  of  Baby- 
lon," says  Professor  Sayce  ;  "  the  capital  of 
the  Babylonian  empire  ojiened  its  gates  to 
the  general  of  Cyrus.  Gobryas  and  his  sol- 
diers entered  the  city  without  fighting,  and 
the  daily  services  in  the  great  temple  of  Bel- 
merodach  suffered  no  interruption.  Three 
months  later  Cyrus  himself  arrived  and 
made  his  peaceful  entry  into  the  new  capi- 
tal of  his  empire.  We  gather  from  the  con- 
tract-tablets that  even  the  ordinary  business 
of  the  place  had  not  been  affected  by  the 
war.  The  siege  and  capture  of  Babylon  by 
Cyrus  is  really  a  reflection  into  the  past  of 
the  actual  sieges  undergone  by  the  city  in 
the  reigns  of  Darius,  son  of  Hystas2:)es,  and 
Xerxes.  It  is  clear,  then,  that  the  editor  of 
the  fifth  chapter  of  Daniel  could  have  been 
as  little  a  contemporary  of  the  events  he 


234     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

professes  to  record  as  Herodotus.  For  both 
alike,  the  true  history  of  the  Babylonian 
empire  has  been  overclouded  and  foreshort- 
ened by  the  lapse  of  time.  The  three  kings 
who  reigned  between  Nebuchadnezzar  and 
Nabunaid  have  been  forgotten,  and  the  last 
king  of  the  Babylonian  empire  has  become 
the  son  of  its  founder."  ^ 

With  respect  to  the  personage  to  whom 
is  attributed  the  capture  of  the  city  the 
same  authority  says  :  — 

"  Darius  the  Mede  is  in  fact  a  reflection 
into  the  past  of  Darius  the  son  of  Hystaspes, 
just  as  the  siege  and  capture  of  Babylon  by 
Cyrus  are  a  reflection  into  the  past  of  its 
siege  and  capture  by  the  same  prince.  The 
name  of  Darius  and  the  story  of  the  slaugh- 
ter of  the  Chaldean  king  go  together ;  they 
are  alike  derived  from  the  unwritten  history 
which,  in  the  East  of  to-day,  is  still  made 
by  the  people,  and  which  blends  together  in 
a  single  picture  the  manifold  events  and 
personages  of  the  past.  It  is  a  history 
which  has  no  perspective,  though  it  is  based 
on  actual  facts ;  the  accurate  combinations 
of  the  chronologer  have  no  meaning  for  it, 
and  the  events  of  a  century  are  crowded 
1  Op.  cit.,  p.  527. 


DANIEL  285 

into  a  few  years.  This  is  the  kind  of  his- 
tory which  the  Jewish  mind  in  the  time  of 
the  Talmud  loved  to  adapt  to  moral  and 
religious  purposes.  This  kind  of  history 
then  becomes,  as  it  were,  a  parable,  and, 
under  the  name  of  Haggada  serves  to  illus- 
trate that  teaching  of  the  law."  ^ 

So  perfectly  clear  is  the  unhistorical  char- 
acter of  these  chapters  to  the  orthodox  com- 
mentators that  some  of  the  most  conserva- 
tive among  them  now  maintain  that  they 
are  an  interpolation  of  a  late  writer.  But 
this  is  a  needless  hypothesis  ;  the  whole 
matter  is  made  perfectly  simple  by  recogniz- 
ing the  fact  that  this  is  not  history,  but 
religious  story,  and  that  the  writer,  living 
almost  four  centuries  after  the  period  in 
which  he  places  the  action  of  his  novel,  is 
not  clear  as  to  his  facts,  and  gets  his  chro- 
nology and  his  characters  considerably  con- 
fused. 

The  meaning  of  his  story  is  not,  however, 
far  to  seek.  Here  again,  while  the  name 
Belshazzar  is  on  his  lips  the  figure  of  Anti- 
ochus  is  before  his  mind.  For,  as  the  author 
of  the  First  Book  of  Maccabees  tells  us, 
Antiochus,  on  his  return  from  his  first  suc- 
^  Op.  cit.y  p.  529. 


236       SEVEN   PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

cessful  invasion  of  Egypt,  "  went  up  against 
Jerusalem  with  a  great  multitude,  and 
entered  proudly  into  the  sanctuary  and  took 
away  the  golden  altar  and  the  candlestick 
of  light,  and  all  the  vessels  thereof,  and  the 
table  of  the  shewbread,  and  the  pouring 
vessels,  and  the  vials  and  the  censers  of 
gold,  and  the  veil  and  the  crowns  and  the 
golden  ornaments  which  were  before  the 
temple,  all  of  which  he  pulled  off.  He  took 
also  the  silver  and  the  gold  and  the  precious 
vessels ;  also  he  took  the  hidden  treasures 
which  he  found.  And  when  he  had  taken 
all  away  he  went  into  his  own  land,  having 
made  a  great  massacre  and  having  spoken 
very  proudly."  Nor  is  it  at  all  improbable 
that  this  haughty  conqueror,  who  had  not 
only  robbed  but  polluted  the  temple,  may 
have  used  the  sacred  vessels  in  some  baccha- 
nalian feast.  Such  a  report  may  have  in- 
flamed the  soul  of  this  writer,  and  he  may 
have  been  moved  to  set  forth  in  this  story 
of  the  imaginary  Belshazzar  the  kind  of 
retribution  which  ought  to  overtake  a  tyrant 
guilty  of  such  sacrilege.  "  The  story  of 
Belshazzar,"  says  Dean  Farrar,  "  whatever 
dim  fragments  of  Babylonian  tradition  it 
may   enshrine,  is   really   suggested   by  the 


DANIEL  237 

profanity  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes  in  carry- 
ing off,  and  doubtless  subjecting  to  profane 
usage,  many  of  the  sacred  vessels  of  the 
Temple  of  Jerusalem.  The  retribution 
which  awaited  the  wayward  Seleucid  tyrant 
is  prophetically  intimated  by  the  menace  of 
doom  which  received  such  immediate  fulfill- 
ment in  the  case  of  the  Babylonian  king," 

It  is  a  thrilling  picture !  How  many 
generations  of  men  have  been  fascinated  by 
its  flashing  imagery!  The  reckless  mon- 
arch, gathering  his  thousand  nobles  and  his 
wives  and  his  concubines  about  him,  violat- 
ing the  proprieties  of  his  own  court  by  a 
brazen  exposure  of  his  own  conviviality, 
and  finally  bethinking  himself  that  he  can 
add  to  his  indecency  the  pungent  spice  of 
sacrilege,  and  so  sending  for  the  sacred 
vessels  of  which  the  Jewish  temple  had 
been  despoiled  that  he  and  his  lords,  his 
wives  and  his  concubines  may  drink  there- 
from, meanwhile  "  praising  their  gods  of 
gold,  and  of  silver,  of  brass,  of  iron,  of 
wood,  and  of  stone." 

Then  comes  forth  the  fateful  hand,  and 
traces  on  the  wall  the  fiery  inscription. 
The  noise  of  the  revelers  ceases  ;  with 
chattering   teeth   and    quaking    limbs   the 


238     SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

king  cries  aloud  to  liis  magians  to  come  and 
tell  him  what  it  means.  Once  more  these 
useless  enchanters  are  confounded,  once 
more  Daniel  is  summoned.  It  is  the  queen 
mother  who  now  enters  to  inform  the  son  of 
Nebuchadrezzar  of  the  existence  of  Daniel. 
If  this  were  history  we  should  find  it  hard 
to  understand  how  the  son  could  have  needed 
to  be  told  who  his  father's  prime  minister 
was,  or  why  he  had  held  a  place  so  exalted. 
But  Daniel  stands  before  Belshazzar,  and 
the  king  tells  him  that  if  he  will  decipher 
the  writing  he  shall  be  clothed  in  purple 
and  wear  a  chain  of  gold,  and  be  one  of 
three  to  rule  the  kingdom. 

"  Thy  gifts  be  to  thyself,  and  thy  rewards 
to  another,"  answers  the  man  who  fears 
God  but  not  the  face  of  a  king.  And  then 
with  words  of  imrelenting  directness  he  tells 
the  monarch  that  his  pride  and  wantonness, 
his  reckless  profanation  of  all  sanctities, 
and  his  blasphemous  defiance  of  the  God  of 
heaven  have  brought  upon  him  a  retribution 
more  condign  than  that  which  fell  upon 
Nebuchadrezzar  his  father.  The  fiery  let- 
ters, glowing  there  upon  the  wall,  are  the 
prophecy  of  his  doom  :  ''  Mene,  mene,  te- 
kel,    upharsin."       "  Numbered,    numbered, 


DANIEL  239 

weighed,  divided."  The  days  of  your  reign 
are  numbered ;  you  yourself  are  weighed 
and.  found  wanting  ;  your  kingdom  is  di- 
vided and  given  to  the  Medes  and  Per- 
sians. 

With  a  few  swift  strokes  the  writer  brings 
this  story  to  a  close.  The  king,  in  the 
midst  of  his  consternation,  keeps  his  pledge  ; 
Daniel  is  clothed  in  purple  and  decorated, 
with  a  golden  chain  and  proclaimed  to  be 
one  of  a  triumvirate  to  rule  the  realm. 
"  And  in  that  night,  Belshazzar  the  Chal- 
dean king  was  slain  and  Darius  the  Mede 
received  the  kingdom." 

The  application  of  this  parable,  the  moral 
of  this  tale,  the  author  does  not  impose 
upon  his  readers  ;  we  can  readily  supply  it. 
It  is  easy  to  imagine  him  stretching  forth 
his  hand  toward  the  palace  wherein  the 
proud  Antiochus  holds  his  court  and  crying : 
"So  perish  all  they  who  defy  the  God  of 
heaven,  and  lay  waste  his  holy  place,  and 
profane  the  sacred  vessels  of  his  worship." 

AYe  cannot  tarry  long  upon  the  story  of 
the  Lion's  Den.  This  happened  in  the  reign 
of  that  Darius  the  Mede  whose  existence  is 
unknown  to  history.  Daniel  must  by  this 
time  be  conceived  by  the  writer  as  a  vener- 


240     SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

able  man  ;  lie  still  maintains  his  eminence  in 
the  affairs  of  state ;  he  is  one  of  a  triumvi- 
rate of  presidents,  who  supervise  all  the 
doings  and  the  accounts  of  the  hundred  and 
twenty  satraps,  in  charge  of  provinces,  and 
so  wise  and  upright  is  he  that  the  king 
meditates  advancing  him  to  the  chancellor- 
ship of  the  whole  realm.  This  excites  the 
jealousy  of  the  other  officials,  and  they  re- 
solve to  compass  his  downfall.  Civil  delin- 
quency they  despair  of  finding  in  him  ;  on 
one  thing  only  can  they  count,  —  an  unswerv- 
ing obedience  to  the  law  of  his  God.  If  by 
means  of  this  they  can  bring  him  into  col- 
lision with  the  law  of  the  realm,  they  may 
be  able  to  depose  him.  Accordingly  they 
are  represented  as  crowding  tumultuously 
into  the  king's  presence,  and  obtaining  from 
him  a  decree  that  "  whoever  shall  ask  a 
petition  of  any  god  or  man  for  thirty  days, 
save  of  thee,  O  king,  he  shall  be  cast  into 
the  den  of  lions."  The  imagination  of  the 
writer  has  free  rein  just  here ;  it  is  scarcely 
conceivable  that  any  sane  monarch  could 
promulgate  a  decree  which  it  would  be  so 
utterly  impossible  to  enforce,  and  which,  if 
it  were  obej^ed,  would  simply  put  an  end  to 
human  intercourse.     But  the  king  is  over- 


DANIEL  241 

borne  by  this  mob  of  office-holders,  and 
promulgates  the  interdict  which  they  have 
written  for  him.  Why  he  does  it  without  a 
word  of  consultation  with  the  greatest  man 
in  all  his  realm,  the  writer  does  not  tell  us. 
The  plot  is  successful :  Daniel,  of  course, 
openly  disobeys  the  interdict,  praying  thrice 
a  day  with  his  windows  open  toward  Jeru- 
salem ;  his  disobedience  is  reported  to  the 
astonished  king,  who  weakly  tries  to  find  a 
way  out  of  the  dilemma  into  which  he  has 
suffered  himself  to  be  drawn,  but  is  finally 
coerced  by  the  rigor  of  his  own  prerogative. 
Daniel  is  thrown  to  the  lions  by  the  king, 
who  timidly  hopes  that  the  God  whom  he 
trusts  will  deliver  him.  The  anxiety  and 
distress  of  the  foolish  king,  the  security  of 
Daniel  amons:  the  lions,  whose  mouths  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  had  closed,  the  gratitude 
of  the  monarch  when  he  found  Daniel  safe 
in  the  early  morning,  and  the  swift  ven- 
geance upon  the  men  who  had  accused  him, 
who,  with  their  children  and  their  wives 
were  flung  to  the  ravenous  beasts  and  de- 
voured in  a  twinkling, — all  this  is  an  old 
story.  The  last  fierce  touch  is  the  only 
ethical  blemish  in  the  book,  —  the  destruc- 
tion   of   these  wives   and   children   for  the 


242      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

misdoing  of  their  husbands  and  fathers  is 
one  of  those  marks  by  which  we  measure 
the  defective  morality  of  that  old  day. 

The  story  does  not  need  to  be  expounded. 
The  fidelity  of  Daniel  to  his  convictions ; 
his  determination  to  let  no  ordinance  or 
decree  of  man  separate  him  from  his  God ; 
his  mighty  affirmation  of  the  great  truth 
that  the  human  soul  must  be  left  free  to 
worship  its  God  in  its  own  way  —  this  is  a 
truth  which  was  dimly  apprehended  in  that 
time,  but  on  which  as  on  a  firm  foundation 
the  best  civilization  of  the  world  is  resting 
to-day.  Antiochus  was  seeking  to  coerce 
the  Jewish  people  into  apostasy  to  their 
faith.  "  Moreover,"  says  the  author  of 
First  Maccabees,  "  King  Antiochus  wrote 
to  his  whole  kingdom  that  all  should  be 
one  people,  and  every  one  should  have  his 
laws  ;  so  all  the  heathen  agreed  according 
to  the  commandment  of  the  king,  yea,  many 
also  of  the  Israelites  consented  to  his  re- 
ligion, and  sacrificed  unto  idols  and  profaned 
the  Sabbath.  For  the  king  had  sent  letters 
by  messengers  unto  Jerusalem  and  the  cities 
of  Judah,  that  they  should  follow  the  strange 
laws  of  the  land,  and  forbid  burnt  offerings 
and   sacrifice    and    drink   offerings   in  the 


DANIEL  243 

temple,  and  that  they  should  profane  the 
Sabbaths  and  festival  days ;  and  pollute 
the  sanctuary  and  holy  people ;  set  up  altars 
and  groves  and  chapels  of  idols,  and  sacri- 
fice swine's  flesh  and  unclean  beasts  ;  that 
they  should  also  leave  their  children  uncir- 
cumcised,  and  make  their  souls  abominable 
with  all  manner  of  uncleanness  and  profana- 
tion ;  to  the  end  they  might  forget  the  law 
and  change  all  the  ordinances ;  and  whoever 
would  not  do  according  to  the  command- 
ment of  the  king,  he  said,  he  should  die." 

Such  was  the  issue  which  then  presented 
itself  to  faithful  Israelites.  The  story  of 
Daniel  cast  into  the  lion's  den  for  his  heroic 
adherence  to  the  faith  of  his  fathers,  and  of 
the  great  deliverance  that  came  to  him,  was 
calculated  to  strengthen  the  courage  and  the 
confidence  of  those  into  whose  hands  this 
writing  fell.  They  saw  in  the  conduct  of 
Daniel  a  type  of  the  kind  of  testimony 
which  every  servant  of  the  living  God  ought 
to  be  ready  to  bear ;  and  they  knew  that 
whether  life  or  death  should  be  their  portion 
they  were  safe  in  the  hands  of  the  mighty 
God  to  whom  in  the  hour  of  peril  they  thus 
committed  their  souls. 

To  the  closing   chapters  of   this  book  I 


244      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

can  give  but  a  word.  I  have  already  so 
fully  indicated  the  character  of  the  book, 
that  a  labored  exposition  of  the  apocalypti- 
cal visions  is  scarcely  necessary.  That  they 
describe  in  mystic  symbolisms  the  histori- 
cal periods  between  the  reign  of  Nebuchad- 
rezzar and  the  tyranny  of  Antiochus  is  now 
the  all  but  unanimous  verdict  of  Christian 
scholars  ;  and  for  us  they  have  but  one  great 
word,  and  that  is  the  utterance  of  the  Mes- 
sianic hope  which  the  writer  more  than  once 
clearly  expresses.  Evidently  it  was  his  ex- 
pectation that  the  kingdom  of  light  and  love 
was  to  follow  almost  immediately  the  down- 
fall of  the  Antiochian  tyranny.  Probably, 
too,  like  most  of  those  who  had  spoken  of 
this  coming  kingdom,  his  conceptions  of 
it  were  dim.  But  while  he  makes  no 
claim  to  a  place  among  the  prophets  of 
Israel,  his  soul,  like  theirs,  is  kindled  with 
the  expectation  of  a  reign  of  righteousness 
which  was  yet  to  fill  the  earth  with  peace 
and  plenty.  To  us  it  seems  clear  that  the 
spiritual  Israel,  rather  than  the  rehabilitated 
Jewish  nationality,  was  the  glory  of  the  fu- 
ture that  caught  their  straining  vision ;  but 
they  hailed  its  brightness  from  afar.  A  cen- 
tury and  a  half  was  yet  to  pass  before  the 


DANIEL  245 

dawning  of  that  Day-star.  "  The  divincst 
side  of  Messianic  prophecy,"  says  DeanFar- 
rar,  "  is  the  expression  of  that  unquenchable 
hope  and  of  that  indomitable  faith,  which 
are  the  most  glorious  outcome  of  all  that  is 
most  Divine  in  the  spirit  of  man.  That 
faith  and  hope  have  never  found  an  ideal  or 
approximate  fulfillment  save  in  Christ  and 
in  his  kingdom,  which  is  now  and  shall  be 
without  end."  ^ 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  163. 


VIII 
JONAH 

If  we  admit  the  possibility  of  the  employ- 
ment of  the  imagination  in  the  production 
of  the  Scriptural  writings,  a  place  is  easily 
found  for  the  Book  of  Jonah.  That  it  is  a 
work  of  the  imagination,  resting  upon  some 
historical  foundations,  is  the  belief  of  most 
of  the  Biblical  scholars  of  the  present  day. 
So  exceedingly  cautious  and  conservative  a 
teacher  as  the  former  President  of  Yale,  Dr. 
Theodore  Woolsey,  is  quoted  by  his  friend 
Professor  Fisher  as  holding  "that  this  re- 
markable book  was  originally  meant  to  be 
an  apologue,  —  an  imaginative  story,  linked 
to  the  name  of  an  historical  person,  a  pro- 
phet of  an  earlier  date,  and  was  comjDosed 
in  order  to  inculcate  the  lesson  with  which 
the  narrative  concludes."  Dr.  Lyman  Ab- 
bott has  said  no  more  than  this.  If  the 
estimate  of  President  Woolsey  and  Profes- 
sor Fisher  and  most  modern  Biblical  schol- 
ars can  be  accepted,  the  questions  respecting 


JONAH  247 

the  preternatural  features  of  the  narrative 
at  once  drop  out  of  the  discussion.  That 
which  is  grotesque  and  fantastic  in  the 
story  may  easily  be  explained  by  reference 
to  the  intellectual  conceptions  of  the  times 
when  it  was  written  ;  we  are  no  more  con- 
cerned with  this  than  we  are  with  the  sci- 
entific or  astronomic  opinions  of  the  Biblical 
writers,  which,  as  we  very  well  know,  were 
not  like  ours. 

That  the  story  is  fiction  and  not  history 
will  appear  upon  examination.  There  was 
a  prophet  Jonah,  who  lived  in  the  time  of 
Jeroboam  II.,  in  the  ninth  century  before 
Christ.  In  the  Second  Book  of  Kings  we 
read  of  certain  prophecies  uttered  by  Jonah 
the  son  of  Amittai,  which  seem  to  have  had 
some  influence  upon  the  conduct  of  the  king  ; 
l)ut  none  of  these  prophecies  are  preserved. 
It  is  not  impossible  that  he  was  a  man  of 
eminence  in  that  reign,  and  that  he  was  sent 
on  some  embassy  to  the  court  of  Assyria, 
whose  capital  of  Nineveh  was  then  a  power- 
ful city.  It  is  not  improbable  that  he  may 
have  preached  righteousness  in  that  city,  and 
that  his  preaching  was  not  unfruitful.  Re- 
specting that  errand  and  its  results  tradi- 
tions may  have  come  down  to  tlie  writer  of 


248      SEVEN  PUZZLING  BIBLE  BOOKS 

this  story,  wliicli  was  probably  composed 
during  the  fifth  century  before  Christ,  or 
perhaps  four  hundred  years  after  the  day  of 
Jonah  the  son  of  Amittai.  The  tradition  is 
that  Jonah  wrote  the  book,  but  there  is  not 
a  word  in  the  book  itself  nor  anywhere  else 
in  the  Bible  on  which  to  base  such  a  tradi- 
tion ;  it  is  a  story  about  Jonah ;  he  is  always 
put  in  the  third  person  ;  and  the  attribution 
to  him  of  the  authorship  is  one  of  those 
utterly  baseless  conjectures  out  of  which  the 
traditional  theory  of  the  Old  Testament  has 
been  so  largely  fabricated. 

That  the  book  is  not  historical  and  was 
not  written  by  the  prophet  Jonah,  is  indi- 
cated by  several  obvious  considerations. 
First,  the  reference  to  Nineveh  is  one  that 
a  writer  living  in  the  days  of  Jeroboam  II. 
would  not  be  likely  to  make.  He  speaks  of 
it  as  if  it  were  a  city  of  ancient  history, 
concerning  which  his  readers  needed  infor- 
mation. '■'  Now  Nineveh,"  he  explains,  "  was 
an  exceeding  great  city,  of  three  days'  jour- 
ney." The  circumference  of  the  wall  seems 
to  be  intended  by  the  last  phrase.  To  an 
Israelite  living  in  the  ninth  century  before 
Christ  such  an  explanation  would  have  been 
unnecessary  ;  and  one  speaking  of  the  capi- 


JONAH  249 

tal  of  Assyria  at  the  time  of  its  glory  would 
not  have  said,  "  Now  Nineveh  iims  an  exceed- 
ing great  city."  A  writer  living  four  hun- 
dred years  later,  when  Nineveh  had  been  for 
a  hundred  years  a  ruin,  would  naturally 
have  spoken  of  it  in  this  manner. 

In  the  second  place,  it  is  incredible  that 
such  a  complete  moral  and  religious  revolu- 
tion as  is  here  depicted  should  have  taken 
place  without  leaving  some  record  of  itself  in 
history.  We  know,  from  the  monuments, 
much  about  the  great  events  in  the  Assyrian 
annals,  but  they  give  us  no  hint  of  such  a 
national  overturning  of  thought  and  life  as 
is  here  described.  So  far  as  we  can  learn, 
the  Ninevites  were  always  idolaters,  wor- 
shiping the  gods  of  their  own  nation ;  and 
it  seems  psychologically  impossible  that  the 
preaching  of  a  Hebrew  prophet  could  have 
produced  such  an  absolute  change  of  opinion 
and  conduct  in  the  whole  population  as  is 
here  delineated.  It  is  said  that  as  the  result 
of  the  preaching  of  Jonah  the  people  of 
Nineveh  "  believed  God  ;  "  that  is,  they  ac- 
cepted the  Hebrew  divinity ;  "  and  they  pro- 
claimed a  fast  and  put  on  sackcloth,  from 
the  greatest  of  them  even  to  the  least  of 
them,'*''     This  is  a  result  of  preaching  which 


250      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

is  wholly  unexampled  in  all  the  records  of 
the  church.  No  such  immediate  conversion 
of  an  entire  population  from  one  faith  to 
another  has  ever  been  known.  And  it  is 
difficult  to  believe  that  such  a  tremendous 
moral  and  religious  overturning  should  have 
occurred  without  leaving  a  trace  of  itself 
anywhere  upon  the  monuments  and  inscrip- 
tions of  ancient  Nineveh. 

Furthermore,  the  prophets  immediately 
following  the  time  of  Jonah,  the  son  of 
Amittai,  have  a  great  deal  to  say  about 
Nineveh.  Isaiah,  Hosea,  Zephaniah,  Na- 
hum,  give  us  much  information  concerning 
the  Assyrian  capital,  and  direct  against  it 
some  weighty  woes  and  denunciations,  but 
none  of  them  so  much  as  intimates  any 
knowledge  of  such  an  event  as  is  here  de- 
scribed. They  speak  of  the  Assyrians  as 
if  they  were  and  had  always  been  idolaters ; 
they  do  not  allude  to  any  previous  conver- 
sion of  the  Ninevites  to  belief  in  the  Jewish 
relio:ion.  It  seems  incredible  that  such  an 
immense  victory  for  the  Jewish  faith  over 
the  Assyriai  idolatry  could  have  occurred 
only  a  few  years  before  their  day  without 
these  great  prophets  knowing  it;  and  it 
seems  equally   incredible  that  if  they  had 


JONAH  251 

known  of  it  they  should  not  have  alluded  to 
it  in  the  prophecies  and  admonitions  and 
exhortations  which  they  address  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Nineveh.  To  my  own  mind  this  fact 
is  entirely  conclusive. 

Something  is  added  to  this  historical  im- 
probability by  the  fact  that  the  name  of  the 
Assyrian  king  is  not  given.  The  great 
monarchs  of  Assyria  during  all  these  years 
were  important  historical  personages ;  it 
would  seem  that  one  writing  at  the  time 
would  have  thought  it  worth  while  to  men- 
tion the  king's  name. 

The  character  of  the  book  is  thus  pretty 
clearly  established  ;  it  is  a  story,  composed 
probably  after  the  exile,  by  some  writer  of 
remarkable  religious  insight,  for  the  inculca- 
tion of  certain  truths  which  greatly  needed 
to  be  impressed  upon  the  Hebrew  mind. 
What  these  truths  were  our  study  of  the 
story  will  make  plain. 

The  word  of  the  Lord  came  to  Jonah, 
bidding  him  arise  and  go  to  Nineveh  and 
cry  against  it  because  its  iniquity  had  come 
up  before  God.  To  the  heavenly  vision  thus 
vouchsafed  him,  Jonah  is  promptly  and  ob- 
stinately disobedient.  Instead  of  going  east- 
ward to  Nineveh,  be  turns  his  face  directly 


252      SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

westward,  going  down  to  the  Mediterranean 
coast  and  taking  passage  on  a  ship  bound 
for  Tarshish  in  Spain.  His  reason  for  go- 
ing, as  he  confesses  later,  is  his  unwilling- 
ness to  deliver  the  message  thus  committed 
to  him ;  and  his  unwillingness  arises  from 
his  fear  that  God  will  not  inflict  the  doom 
denounced  upon  the  city,  but  will  be  moved 
by  the  penitence  of  the  Ninevites  to  annul 
the  penalty.  In  that  case  Jonah  would  suf- 
fer some  loss  of  reputation  as  a  prophet,  and 
Jonah  cares  more  for  his  reputation  as  a 
prophet  than  for  the  success  of  his  message. 
His  sudden  flight  to  the  seacoast  is  due  to 
his  idea  that  if  he  can  get  away  from  the 
Land  of  Israel  he  will  be  out  of  the  juris- 
diction of  the  God  of  Israel.  So  he  pays 
his  fare  for  Tarshish,  and  sets  forth,  — 
neither  the  first  nor  the  last  man  who  has 
tried  to  run  away  from  God ;  not  the  first 
nor  the  last  who  has  imagined  that  a  short 
sea  voyage  would  put  him  beyond  the  reach 
of  the  obligations  of  duty. 

But  a  great  storm  arose ;  and  the  supersti- 
tious sailors  are  sure  that  Nemesis  is  in  pur- 
suit of  them,  so  they  "  cry  every  man  unto 
his  god."  It  would  seem  that  more  than 
one  faith  must  have  been  represented  among 


JOXAii  253 

tbem ;  each  man  prays  to  his  own  divinity. 
But  the  storm  does  not  abate,  and  at  length 
they  bethink  them  of  a  passenger,  asleep  in 
the  hold,  who  owes  allegiance  to  some  other 
god.  So  they  wake  him  up  and  call  upon 
him  to  pray  to  his  god :  peradventure  He 
is  the  god  whose  wrath  has  raised  this  tem- 
pest. But  while  Jonah  is  praying  they  will 
try  to  find  put  in  another  way  whose  fault 
has  brought  this  storm  upon  them.  The  lot 
will  tell  the  culprit,  and  the  lot  falls  on 
Jonah.  And  now  the  poor  runaway  prophet 
makes  a  full  confession.  He  tells  them  that 
he  is  a  Hebrew  ;  he  fears  the  God  of  heaven, 
"  which  hath  made  the  sea  and  the  dry  land." 
This  is  a  fact  which,  apparently,  he  had  not 
fully  estimated.  The  sea  —  that  portion  of 
it,  at  least,  which  was  contiguous  to  the  land 
of  Israel  —  was  under  the  dominion  of  his 
God ;  he  had  reckoned  ill  when  he  thought 
to  get  away  from  Jehovah  by  the  way  of  the 
sea.  He  now  perceives  that  retribution  has 
overtaken  him ;  and  the  sailors,  to  whom  he 
has  confessed  that  he  is  fleeing  from  the 
presence  of  Jehovah,  are  very  much  afraid. 
"  What  shall  we  do  unto  thee,"  they  cry, 
"  that  the  sea  may  be  calm  unto  us  ?  And 
he  said  unto  them,  Take  me  up  and  cast  me 


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forth  into  the  sea ;  so  shall  the  sea  be  calm 
unto  you ;  for  I  know  that  for  my  sake  this 
great  tempest  is  upon  you."  That  is  a  mag- 
nanimous word,  surely  ;  the  prophet  is  not 
destitute  of  nobleness.  But  these  heathen 
sailors  are  also  humane  men.  They  are  not 
willing  to  save  their  own  lives  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  life  of  Jonah ;  so  they  fall  to  their 
oars  and  row  lustily  to  get  him  back  to  land, 
but  their  labor  is  vain ;  more  and  more  bois- 
terously blows  the  wind  off  shore ;  they  can 
make  no  headway  against  it. 

So  now  they  lift  up  their  cry,  not  to  their 
own  gods,  but  to  the  God  of  Jonah  —  to 
Jehovah  (for  this  is  the  Hebrew  word  which 
always  stands  in  the  text  when  Lord  is 
printed  in  small  capitals)  :  "  We  beseech  thee, 
O  Lord,  we  beseech  thee,  let  us  not  perish 
for  this  man's  life,  and  lay  not  upon  us  in- 
nocent blood.  So  they  took  up  Jonah  and 
cast  him  forth  into  the  sea,  and  the  sea 
ceased  from  her  raging."  To  the  heathen 
sailors  this  is  clear  evidence  that  Jehovah  is 
a  God  of  power ;  they  offer  to  Him  sacrifices 
and  vows. 

What  happened  to  Jonah  I  do  not  need 
to  tell.  After  his  marvelous  deliverance, 
the  order  to  proceed  to  Nineveh  is  repeated. 


J  ox  ATI 


'}r^f^ 


The  prophet  now  obeys :  he  delivers  his 
message,  threatening  the  destruction  of  the 
city  within  forty  days  ;  the  people  of  the 
city  "  believed  God,  and  they  proclaimed  a 
fast  and  put  on  sackcloth,  from  the  greatest 
of  them  unto  the  least  of  them.  And  the 
tidings  reached  the  king  of  Nineveh,  and 
he  arose  from  his  throne  and  laid  his  robe 
from  him  and  covered  him  with  sackcloth 
and  sat  in  ashes."  To  all  his  people  he  pro- 
claims the  same  solemn  fast,  commanding 
them  to  cry  mightily  unto  God,  the  God  of 
Israel,  with  hearty  repentance,  turning  every 
one  from  his  evil  way  and  from  the  violence 
that  is  in  his  hands.  "  Who  knoweth," 
says  the  king,  "  whether  God  will  not  turn 
and  repent,  and  turn  away  from  his  fierce 
anger  that  we  perish  not?  And  God  saw 
their  works  that  they  turned  from  their  evil 
way,  and  God  repented  of  the  evil  which  he 
had  said  he  would  do  unto  them,  and  he  did 
it  not." 

And  now  Jonah  is  indignant.  This  is 
just  what  I  expected,  he  cries,  before  I 
started  to  run  away  to  Tarshish.  I  knew  it 
would  turn  out  just  so.  "  I  knew  that  tliou 
art  a  gracious  God,  and  full  of  compassion, 
slow  to  anger  and  plenteous  in  mercy,  and 


256      SEVEX  PUZZLING    BIBLE    BOOKS 

repentest  thee  of  the  evil."  I  knew  that  if 
these  Ninevites  turned  from  their  sins  they 
would  be  forgiven,  and  all  my  threatening 
would  go  for  nothing.  What  is  the  use  of 
being  the  prophet  of  such  a  God  as  this  ? 
"  Therefore  now,  Jehovah,  take  my  life 
from  me,  for  it  is  better  for  me  to  die  than 
to  live." 

Behold  now  the  gentleness  of  God  as  this 
writer  conceives  Him  !  To  this  petulant, 
perverse,  narrow-minded  servant  of  his,  how 
patient  and  considerate  is  his  answer.  "  And 
the  Lord  said,  Doest  thou  well  to  be  angry  ?  " 
But  Jonah  flings  himself  out  of  the  city 
and  makes  him  a  shelter  from  the  heat,  and 
sits  down  in  a  pout  to  see  what  will  become 
of  the  city.  And  the  tender  care  of  the 
gracious  God  follows  the  sulking  prophet  to 
this  retreat  and  spreads  a  comforting  shade 
over  him ;  and  while  this  refreshment  lasts 
his  spirit  is  somewhat  mollified ;  but  the 
vine  that  sheltered  him  is  withered  by  the 
heat,  and  Jonah's  faith  fails  with  his  fainting 
body,  and  again  he  cries  to  God  to  end  his 
days.  And  now,  again,  comes  the  gentle 
rebuke  of  Jehovah.  "  Doest  thou  well  to  be 
angry  for  the  gourd?  And  he  said,  I  do 
well  to  be  angry  even  unto  death.     And  the 


JONAH  257 

Lord  said,  Thou  hast  had  pity  on  the  gourd, 
for  the  which  thou  hast  not  labored,  neither 
madest  it  grow ;  which  came  up  in  a  night 
and  perished  in  a  night :  and  should  I  not 
have  pity  on  Nineveh,  that  great  city ;  where- 
in are  more  than  sixscore  thousand  persons 
that  cannot  discern  between  their  right  hand 
and  their  left  hand ;  and  also  much  cattle  ? ' 

Thus  abruptly  does  the  story  end.  What 
happened  to  the  city,  what  became  of  Jonah, 
the  author  does  not  care  to  tell.  He  has 
delivered  his  message  ;  he  has  thrown  his 
flash-light  into  the  darkness  of  Hebrew  big- 
otry and  exclusiveness ;  and  there  is  no 
need  to  add  another  word. 

The  suggestion  has  been  made  that  this 
story  is  a  satire.  To  us  it  has  the  effect  of 
satire,  but  I  am  not  clear  that  this  was  its 
intention.  To  us,  the  picture  of  a  pro^jhet 
who  starts  to  run  away  from  the  presence  of 
God,  and  thinks  that  he  can  escape  from 
Him  by  taking  a  ship  at  Joppa  and  paying 
his  fare  to  Tarshish ;  who  gets  angry  be- 
cause the  people  to  whom  he  is  sent  to  preach 
righteousness  repent  and  are  forgiven  ;  who 
cares  more  for  the  preservation  of  a  gourd 
that  shelters  him  from  the  heat  of  the  sun 
than  for  the  life  of  the  people  of  a  great 


258      SEVEX  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

city  —  such  a  prophet  as  this  is  so  utterly 
stupid,  ignorant,  selfish,  unspiritual,  that  it 
seems  nothing  short  of  ridiculous  to  call  him 
a  prophet.  But  it  is  not  at  all  certain  that 
notions  like  these  seemed  ridiculous  to  many 
of  those  who  first  read  this  book  ;  and  it 
may  be  that  they  needed  to  be  told,  gently 
and  seriously,  the  very  truths  which  this 
prophet  seems  so  feebly  to  grasp.  Let  us 
see  what  are  the  most  important  of  these 
truths : 

1.  Jehovah  is  not  the  God  of  the  people 
and  the  land  of  Israel ;  he  is  the  God  of  the 
whole  earth.  As  we  saw  in  our  study  of  the 
Book  of  Judges,  this  idea  was  not  the  origi- 
nal conception  of  the  Hebrews ;  they  sup- 
posed that  every  nation  had  its  own  god  : 
Jehovah  was  their  God,  greater  than  any  of 
the  others,  but  not  the  only  deity.  Jonah  is 
represented  by  this  writer  as  holding  this 
ethnic  conception  of  Jehovah  ;  the  writer 
seeks  to  show  his  readers  that  this  is  an 
erroneous  conception  ;  that  one  does  not  es- 
cape from  Jehovah  by  fleeing  from  the  land 
of  Canaan.  Probably  he  meant  also  to 
teach  us  that  it  is  not  only  wrong  but  su- 
premely foolish  to  try  to  evade  any  duty. 

2.  The  Ninevites  as  well  as  the  Israelites 


JONAH  259 

are  dear  to  eJehovah.  It  is  not  those  alone 
who  deem  themselves  his  chosen  people  for 
whose  welfare  He  cares ;  toward  the  heathen, 
even  toward  the  idolaters  He  has  purposes  of 
mercy.  "  The  real  design  of  the  narrative," 
says  Dr.  Driver,  "is  to  teach,  in  opposition 
to  the  narrow,  exclusive  view,  that  God's 
purposes  of  grace  are  not  limited  to  Israel 
alone,  but  that  they  are  open  to  the  heathen 
as  well,  if  only  they  abandon  their  evil 
courses  and  turn  to  Him  in  true  penitence. 
.  .  .  The  Israelites  had  suffered  so  much  at 
the  hands  of  foreign  oppressors  that  they 
came  to  look  upon  the  heathen  as  their  nat- 
ural foes,  and  were  impatient  when  they  saw 
the  judgments  uttered  against  them  unful- 
filled. Jonah  appears  as  the  representative 
of  the  popular  Israelitish  creed."  ^  This  is 
the  character  which  the  author  has  drawn ; 
this  is  the  spirit  which  he  holds  up,  not  to 
ridicule,  as  I  take  him,  but  to  judgment  and 
condemnation.  Our  God  is  not  the  God  of 
the  Jews  only  but  of  the  Gentiles  also,  he 
declares  :  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth  are  the 
objects  of  his  love  and  care.  "  It  might 
well  be  said,"  says  Friedrich  Bleek,  "  that 
the    all-embracing    fatherly   love   of    God, 

^  Introduction,  p.  302. 


260      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE  BOOKS 

which  has  no  respect  for  person  or  nation, 
but  is  moved  to  mercy  on  all  who  turn  to 
Him,  is  brought  into  view  in  no  book  of  the 
Old  Testament  in  a  way  so  impressive  and 
so  nearly  approaching  the  Christian  religion 
as  it  is  in  this  book."  ^ 

3.  Still  another  lesson  may  be  learned 
from  this  book,  not  only  by  Jews  of  the 
fifth  century  before  Christ  but  by  Christians 
of  the  nineteenth  century  after  Christ.  All 
God's  threatenings  of  penalty  are  conditional. 
To  the  truly  penitent  his  grace  extends. 
What  his  law  wants  is  not  retribution  but 
righteousness.  His  law  is  honored  only 
when  it  is  obeyed.  He  is  not  a  Shylock, 
stickling  for  his  pound  of  flesh.  That  was 
what  troubled  Jonah.  Jonah  thought  that 
a  God  who  forgave  sinners  when  they  re- 
pented, and  just  because  they  repented, 
could  never  manage  this  universe  at  all. 
"  What  will  become  of  the  law,"  he  wanted 
to  know,  "  if  men  are  forgiven  when  they 
repent  of  their  sins?  And  what  will  be- 
come of  my  theology  ?  And  what  will  be- 
come of  me?"  That  cry  has  been  heard 
from  a  great  many  theologians  since  Jonah's 
day.     But  Jonah  found  out  that  the  Judge 

^  Introduction,  vol.  ii.  p.  186. 


JONAH  261 

of  all  the  earth  desires  not  retribution  so 
much  as  repentance ;  and  that  He  finds  it 
perfectly  safe  to  forgive  and  to  love  those 
who  are  sorry  for  their  sins  and  who  want  to 
do  right.  The  author  of  the  Book  of  Jonah 
was  not  the  first  who  found  out  this  truth ; 
Jeremiah  before  him,  Ezekiel  after  him, 
perhaps,  made  the  same  discovery :  "  At 
what  instant,"  says  Jehovah  by  the  mouth 
of  Jeremiah,  "  I  shall  speak  concerning  a 
nation  and  concerning  a  kingdom,  to  pluok 
up  and  to  break  down  and  to  destroy  it ;  if 
that  nation,  concerning  which  I  have  spoken, 
turn  from  their  evil,  I  will  repent  of  the 
evil  that  I  thought  to  do  unto  them."  That 
is  the  substance  of  the  great  truth  which  the 
book  of  Jonah  is  written  to  declare.  The 
Jews  understood,  in  part,  that  repentance 
might  avert  retribution  threatened  against 
themselves :  but  this  book  shows  them  that 
the  same  divine  clemency  is  extended  to  the 
people  of  every  nation. 

And  in  the  last  verse  of  the  book  there  is 
a  touch  of  the  divine  compassion,  more  ten- 
der than  we  find  elsewhere  in  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  And  the  Lord  said,  "  Should 
not  I  have  pity  on  Nineveh,  that  great  city; 
whence    are   more   than   sixscore   thousand 


262      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

that  cannot  discern  between  their  right 
hand  and  their  left  hand  :  and  also  much 
cattle  ?  "  Think  of  it,  Jonah.  There  are  not 
less  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand 
little  children,  —  innocent  children,  in  that 
city.  You  want  to  call  down  fire  from  hea- 
ven to  consume  the  city.  Perhaps  many  of 
those  who  have  grown  old  in  sin  may  de- 
serve that  doom,  but  how  about  these  little 
ones?  Do  you  want  to  burn  them  all  up 
with  the  rest  ? 

I  suppose  that  Jonah,  if  he  had  been  the 
average  Jew,  living  five  or  six  centuries  be- 
fore Christ,  would  have  been  struck  fairly 
dumb  by  this  suggestion.  That  children 
should  be  punished  for  the  sins  of  their  par- 
ents was  a  matter  of  course.  They  always 
had  been ;  that  was  supposed  to  be  in  per- 
fect conformity  with  justice.  It  was  not 
only  the  Jewish  conception ;  it  was  the 
Roman  conception  as  well ;  that  children 
must  suffer  with  their  parents  was  the  uni- 
versal idea  ;  the  sense  of  individual  justice 
which  says  in  the  later  words  of  Ezekiel, 
"  The  son  shall  not  bear  the  iniquity  of 
the  father,  neither  shall  the  father  bear  the 
iniquity  of  the  son,"  had  not  yet  found  ex- 
pression.     Were    not   the   children  of   the 


^ 


JONAH  263 

Canaanitish  cities  exterminated  with  their 
parents  ?  Did  not  the  decree  of  Mordecai 
provide  that  the  children  of  the  Persians 
were  to  be  slaughtered  with  their  fathers 
and  mothers  ?  Did  not  one  of  the  Psalmists 
sing  — 

"  0  daughter  of  Babj'lon,  that  art  to  be  destroyed, 
Happy  shall   he  be  that  rewardeth   thee  as  thou  hast 

served  us  : 
Happy  shall  he  be  that  taketh  and  dasheth  thy  little 

ones 
Against  the  rock." 

This  was  the  common  idea  of  that  day ; 
but  upon  the  mind  of  the  writer  of  this 
book  has  dawned  a  different  idea.  The 
God  whom  he  has  learned  to  love  and  trust 
is  one  who  cannot  be  pleased  with  the  sacri- 
fice of  the  innocent  on  the  altars  of  ven- 
geance. Think  of  it,  Jonah !  one  hundred 
and  twenty  thousand  innocent  babies  in 
Nineveh  —  should  not  I  have  pity  on  them  ? 
The  God  who  says  this  is  not  the  God  of 
Joshua,  nor  of  Esther,  nor  even  of  Daniel ; 
the  writer  of  this  book  has  caught  a  glim})se 
not  only  of  the  divine  compassion  but  of  the 
divine  justice  far  clearer  than  any  which 
was  seen  by  most  of  the  men  of  his  day. 

And  his  insight  goes  deeper  still.  The 
God  whom  he  believes  in  cares  not  only  for 


264      SEVEN  PUZZLING   BIBLE   BOOKS 

little  children,  lie  loves  also  our  humbler 
fellow  creatures  ;  their  sufferings  are  matter 
of  concern  to  Him.  Not  only  are  there  six- 
score  thousand  little  children  in  that  city  on 
which  Jonah  wants  to  call  down  fire  from 
heaven,  "  hut  also  much  cattle  "  /  Should 
not  I  have  pity  on  that  city  ?  Thus  it  was 
that  to  this  old  writer  dwelling  in  the  twi- 
light of  the  centuries  before  Christ  there 
came  such  a  vision  of  the  divine  gentleness 
as  few  in  any  age  have  shared.  It  is  his 
voice,  heard  through  the  noises  of  the  cruel 
and  bloody  ages,  to  which  the  poet  of  our 
own  time  makes  response  :  — 

"  0  sweeter  than  the  marriage  feast 
'  T  is  sweeter  far  to  me 
To  walk  together  to  the  kirk, 
With  a  goodly  company. 

"  To  walk  together  to  the  kirk 
And  all  together  pray, 
While  each  to  his  great  Father  bends, 
Old  men,  and  babes,  and  loving  friends, 
And  youths  and  maidens  gay. 

"  Farewell,  farewell,  but  this  I  tell 
To  thee,  thou  wedding  guest. 
He  prayeth  well  who  loveth  well 
Both  man  and  bird  and  beast ; 

"  He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
All  things  both  great  and  small,  — 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us 
He  made  and  loveth  all." 


J  ox  AH  2G5 

Such  is  the  conception  of  God  which  has 
been  vouchsafed  to  the  author  of  the  Book 
of  Jonah.  I  think  that  no  higher,  purer, 
more  spiritual  conception  is  found  in  any 
book  of  the  Old  Testament.  That  any  man 
should  have  seen  these  great  truths  at  that 
day  so  clearly  is  very  wonderful.  I  think 
that  he  was  an  inspired  writer,  —  not  in- 
spired to  write  history,  but  to  write  a  story 
filled  with  great  and  worthy  thoughts  of 
God.  "  I  have  read  the  Book  of  Jonah," 
says  Professor  Cornill,  "  at  least  a  hundred 
times,  and  I  will  publicly  avow,  for  I  am 
not  ashamed  of  my  weakness,  that  I  can- 
not even  now  take  up  this  marvelous  book, 
nay,  nor  even  speak  of  it,  without  the  tears 
rising  to  my  eyes,  and  my  heart  beating 
higher.  This  apparently  trivial  book  is  one 
of  the  deepest  and  grandest  that  ever  was 
written,  and  I  should  like  to  say  to  every 
one  who  approaches  it,  '  Take  off  thy  shoes, 
for  the  place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy 
ground.'  In  this  book  Israelitish  prophecy 
quits  the  scene  of  battle  as  victor,  and  as 
victor  in  its  severest  struggle,  that  against 
self.  In  it  the  prophecy  of  Israel  suc- 
ceeded, as  Jeremiah  expresses  it  in  a  re- 
markable and  well-known  passage,  in  free- 


2G6      SEVEN  PUZZLING    BIBLE   BOOKS 

ing  the  precious  from  the  vile  and  in  finding 
its  better  self  again."  ^ 

With  this  brief  study  of  the  Book  of 
Jonah  our  task  comes  to  its  close.  I  will 
venture  to  hope  that  to  some  of  those  who 
have  gone  with  me,  these  books  are  some- 
what less  puzzling  than  they  were  when  we 
began  to  study  them ;  that  they  are  less 
mysterious,  less  magical,  perhaps,  but  no 
less  instructive  and  stimulating.  The  seri- 
ous trouble  in  interpreting  most  of  them 
has  arisen,  as  we  have  seen,  from  a  failure 
to  take  them  for  what  they  are  ;  from  an 
attempt  to  make  history  out  of  fiction,  and 
dogma  out  of  drama,  and  allegory  out  of 
simple  poetry,  and  prediction  out  of  apoca- 
lypse. Only  recognize  the  truth  that  we 
have  in  the  Bible  several  different  kinds  of 
literature,  each  of  which  must  be  interpreted 
according  to  its  own  laws,  and  a  large  share 
of  our  difficulties  at  once  disappears.  The 
Bible  at  once  becomes  a  different  kind  of 
book  from  that  which  we  once  supposed  it 
to  be  ;  but  it  is  certainly  not  less  interest- 
ing, not  less  inspiring.  Start  with  the 
assumption  that  every  sentence  of  the  Book 
of  Job  or  of  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  is 
God's    word,  and  you    have    a   problem    on 

^  The  Prophets  of  Israel,  Chicag-o  ed.,  p.  171. 


JONAH  2G7 

your  hands  in  solving  which  you  are  liable 
to  lose  your  intellectual  integrity  and  dim 
your  moral  insight.  Accept  the  truth  that 
you  are  dealing  with  literature  whose  forms 
are  more  or  less  dramatic,  and  the  solution 
is  simple.  Find  out  the  true  character  of 
the  book  of  Daniel  and  the  date  at  which  it 
was  written,  and  most  of  the  enigmas  of  the 
book  are  at  once  explained.  Believe  with 
President  Woolsey  that  Jonah  is  a  religious 
story,  written  to  set  forth  those  worthier 
ideas  of  God  and  his  kingdom  into  which 
the  writer  had  been  divinely  led,  and  the 
questions  over  which  men  have  been  dis- 
puting for  generations  at  once  pass  from 
the  field  of  vision. 

Have  not  these  studies  made  it  plain  that 
the  facts  respecting  the  true  character  of 
the  Bible  are  facts  which  the  people  need 
to  know  ?  They  are  known  to  most  Biblical 
scholars  of  repute  ;  they  are  distinctly 
taught  in  many  of  our  theological  semina- 
ries, and  the  people  ought  to  know  them. 
AVe  can  afford  to  tell  the  truth  about  the 
Bible.  It  will  not  hurt  the  Bible,  and  it 
will  not  hurt  the  people.  After  the  truth 
is  all  told  it  will  still  be  the  Book  of 
books,  dearer  to  all  who  love  righteousness 
and  God  than  it  ever  was  before. 


CAMBRIDGE,    MASSACHUSETTS,  U.   S.   A. 

ELECTROTYPED  AND   PRINTED    BY 

H.  O.   HOUGHTON  AND  CO. 


Date  Due 

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Seven  puzzling  Bible  books; 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 

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